Școli și cursuri țărănești organizate de „Astra“ între 1940-1944

Abstract

In the circumstances of the war, the Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and Culture of the Romanian People (“ASTRA”) intensified their cultural propaganda, a major direction thereof being the organization of an impressive number of schools and courses for young adult peasants in Transylvania. By far, the most prolific field of the association’s activity, with regard to the inter-war and the post-war period, the peasant schools and the hygiene courses were particularly aimed at the female segment in the rural areas. The purposes of the eugenicists Iuliu Moldovan and Gheorghe Preda were to counteract the effects of declining birth rate in some border areas inhabited by ethnic Romanians, deficient nutrition of the rural population and the worrisome increase of infant mortality. The adult curriculum had a very marked practical component, as it aimed at developing skills and habits to bring about effective and prompt changes in the peasants’ everyday life, with an emphasis placed on the women’s role in family and society, in terms of morality, education, housekeeping and nationalism – to empower and regenerate the national people. The collaboration with Marshal Antonescu’s regime drew to “Astra” significant ministerial subsidies, as well as unprecedented financial support from the Patronage Council for Social Achievements led by Maria Antonescu. The teaching and eugenic phenomenon – adult education – was notably successful in Banat, in the counties of Alba, Brașov, Hunedoara and particularly Sibiu.