From Republicanism to Popular Instruction to Nationalism

Abstract

With characteristic clarity and persuasiveness, Marxist critic Jose Carlos Mariategui noted that educational doctrines from different sources overlapped in Peruvian public discourse from independence to the early twentieth century: Education in Peru has been subject to three successive influences: the Spanish influence or, more precisely, legacy; the French; and the North American. However, the initial Spanish influence has dominated. The other two have barely penetrated the Spanish framework and have not altered it basically. The history of public education in Peru is divided into three periods according to these influences. The periods are not precisely defined. This is a common effect in Peru, where even men are seldom clearly and unmistakably outlined and everything is a little blurred and confused. A combination of foreign elements, unadapted to local conditions, is superimposed on public education, as on other aspects of national life. Peru, fruit of the conquest, is not a country that assimilated the ideas of men of other nations and imbues them with its sentiments and customs, thereby enriching without deforming its national spirit.1