“Found schools and you will do away with revolutions,” was the favourite expression of President Sarmiento. It was during this administration that education received its greatest impetus. Sarmiento, who has been called the “school-teacher president,” inaugurated a most liberal policy towards popular education. He was deeply interested in this problem, had made a study of the educational systems in the United States and caused the establishment of very many schools and public libraries. The provincial and municipal authorities of the republic were everywhere encouraged and urged to establish an efficient system of public instruction, and his efforts produced beneficial results. The later administrations, however, have been absorbed in other lines, and many of the progressive ideas of Sarmiento were allowed to pass into “innocuous desuetude.” There have[231] been occasional spurts of energy, but these have been far too spasmodic. The subject of education arouses less interest than it should with the people in general. This lack of public interest is perhaps accountable in a great measure for the indifference of the provincial and national administrations. Here is a criticism of Mr. Akers, the historian, of the educational system in Argentina. “A smattering of many subjects is taught, a sound knowledge of any one is the exception. It is not that the pupils are deficient in intelligence, but rather that teachers are lacking in experience and ability. Nor can any other result be expected under existing circumstances. The payment of officials is inadequate, and frequently salaries are months in arrears, while lack of discipline in primary, secondary and higher education is conspicuous. Provisions for the orderly exercise of authority in colleges and schools are also most defective.” This criticism was written in 1903, but it is applicable to-day, except that the payment of the teachers is somewhat higher and a little more regular. The teaching profession is still greatly underpaid, as the money is turned into other channels which are more purely political. It is simply[232] another example of that utilitarian policy of looking only to the present and letting the future generations take care of themselves.
Public instruction in Argentina is divided into three classes—primary, secondary and higher education. Primary education is compulsory by law, though seldom enforced, and is given free to all children in the republic between the ages of six and fourteen. Education in the capital and territories is under the control of the Federal Government, and there are in all five thousand, two hundred and fifty public schools for primary instruction maintained by it. Each of the provinces maintains large numbers of these schools for elementary instruction also, and in addition each city contains a number of private schools to which people of means send their children rather than to the public institutions. All of the schools having the support of the Federal Government are under the supervision of the National Council of Education, which is housed in a beautiful building in the city of Buenos Aires. Secondary education is not compulsory, but it is practically free, as only a very small fee is charged for registration. There are sixteen lyceums[233] and thirty-five normal schools which come under this class, and they are located in all the larger cities of the nation. The national universities of Buenos Aires and Cordoba are both noted institutions, and these, together with the provincial universities at La Plata, Santa Fé and Paraná, provide the higher education. In addition to this the various provincial governments send a number of students abroad each year to complete their studies at the noted universities of Europe and North America. At the present time there are about thirty of these students at the various universities and colleges of the United States, and others are pursuing their studies in England, France, Germany and Italy.
 
A SECONDARY SCHOOL
 
Many technical schools are also maintained by the national government. Among these one of the most practical is the Industrial School of the capital. This institution has elaborate workshops which are well equipped with machinery and appliances, in which the trades and crafts are taught. The National Conservatory of Music, the School for Drawing, the School of Art, and the School of Commerce, in which instruction is given accountants and translators, are situated in Buenos Aires, and there[234] are commercial schools in Cordoba and Bahia Blanca. There is an agricultural school in Santa Catalina, province of Buenos Aires, and agricultural experiment stations have been established at Tucuman, Bella Vista, San Juan and Tenna.
Argentina is, at the present time, spending a great deal of money for education. In the city of Buenos Aires there are sixty-seven buildings devoted to educational purposes. Many of these are very attractive structures and the total cost has run up into the millions of pesos. The general plan of education is being modelled very much after that of the United States. System and practice, however, are often two different things, and so it oftentimes happens in Argentina. In actual practice there is often a misconception of what real education means. Superficiality is too often a characteristic of the education offered. There are many finely educated persons in the country, but not many of them teachers. The positions are too often the reward of politics, although there are many very efficient women who are teaching. Graduation is easy for the scholar with a pull, for the students will bring in recommendations at graduation time in order[235] to be sure of passing, especially if they have not been very diligent. A glitter is too often allowed to take the place of real scholarliness and learning. This superficiality is too often allowed to pass muster where solidarity should be demanded.
The University of Buenos Aires is one of the great educational institutions of the New World. It is not quite so old as the one in Cordoba, which was founded in 1613, but it has a much larger attendance of students, probably because of its location in the capital. The buildings are scattered over the city in different sections, as the various departments have been added from time to time. A few of the oldest buildings are very venerable looking indeed, and are among the oldest structures in the city. It is planned to rebuild much of the University in the suburban sections in the near future, so that more space can be utilized in quadrangle and park. Almost five thousand students receive instruction in the various departments, of which the largest number, about one-half of the whole, are matriculated in the College of Medicine, which is a large and well-equipped institution. Many departments are included in the institution, however, which do[236] not strictly come within the designation of a medical institution proper, and that accounts for the numerical enrolment. The next largest department is that known as the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences. A recent addition to this ancient university is the National Agronomic and Veterinary Institute, which is devoted to developing what are, and perhaps always will be, the greatest sources of the national wealth of Argentina. The courses of study of the University are very complete, and contain what is best in Argentine education. It is by far the best and most thorough educational institution in the republic.
It is not to be expected that one would find in Argentina a very great number of writers. The greatest incentive to a writer, as well as to a publisher, is that a book will be read by many people. In the republics of Spanish America, with education only imperfectly spread among the masses, the number of readers has been necessarily small. Another obstacle to the development of literary activity has been in the frequent wars and revolutions which have kept most of those nations in a state of political turmoil. Furthermore the comparative isolation of those republics prevented[237] a co?peration among them even though there was a sameness of language. Therefore the editions were necessarily small, and the remuneration consequently inadequate to encourage a literary career. In the face of these disabilities it is to the credit of Spanish-American writers that their activities have been so considerable.
Politics and journalism have always been intimately connected in Argentina, for the editorial has oftentimes been of greater interest than the news columns. Many of her writers have been intimately associated with this form of activity. Avellaneda, Pellegrini, and Bartolomé Mitre, all of whom occupied the presidential chair, first made their mark in the journalistic field. The last named wrote an able work on the history of the emancipation of South America and a biography of the Argentine patriot, San Martin. Vicente Fidel Lopez, another historical writer, gave to the world a “History of the Argentine Republic,” which has taken its place among standard historical works.
Poetry and the drama have always been favourite forms of writing among Spanish writers. Perhaps no language can boast of so[238] many dramas as the Castilian. Argentina has nourished a number of these, among whom might be named Tomas Gutierrez, Rosa Guerra and Juana Manso de Noronha, the latter writing a drama called “T............