Francisco Ferrer Guardia (Catalan: Francesc
Ferrer i Guàrdia; 10 January 1859 – 13
October 1909) was a Spanish educator and advocate
of free thinking from Catalonia.Ferrer was
the founder of the Escola Moderna (Escuela
Moderna in Spanish), a non-compulsory primary
and secondary school. Ferrer's pedagogical
outlook—in large part—was inspired by
the works of William Godwin and Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, both of whom firmly rejected the
idea of education brought about by means of
compulsion.
== Life ==
Ferrer was born in Alella (a small town near
Barcelona) on January 10, 1859, to Roman Catholic
parents who owned a vineyard. He was sent
to work at a Barcelona firm at the age of
15. The owner of the firm was an anti-cleric
and is said to have had a great influence
on Ferrer. A follower of Spanish republican
leader Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla, Ferrer exiled
with his wife and children in 1885. He lived
in exile in Paris between 1886 and 1901. Divorcing
in 1899, he remarried a wealthy Parisian teacher
shortly thereafter.
In 1901 he returned to Spain and opened the
first Escuela Moderna (The Modern School)
in Barcelona, starting with 12 girls and 18
boys in order to teach middle-class children
(then) radical social values. During Ferrer's
life, la Escuela Moderna attracted international
attention and prompted visits from George
Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle,
and Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy was so inspired by
Ferrer's school that he started his own in
Russia, which in 1921 served as inspiration
for A. S. Neill's creation of today's Summerhill
School in Suffolk, England.In 1906 he was
arrested on suspicion of involvement with
the anarchist Mateu Morral's attack on King
Alfonso XIII and released uncharged over a
year later. His school failed and closed while
he was incarcerated.
Early in the summer of 1908, after his release
from jail, he wrote the story of the Modern
School. The work was entitled The Origins
and Ideals of the Modern School and was translated
into English and published by the Knickerbocker
Press in 1913.
Following the declaration of martial law in
1909 during the Tragic Week, he was declared
guilty by a military tribunal.
His last words were "Aim well, my friends,
you are not responsible. I am innocent; long
live la Escuela Moderna".On 13 October 1909,
Francisco Ferrer Guardia was shot dead at
Montjuich Fortress. He is buried there in
the Montjuïc Cemetery.
== Legacy ==
Benito Mussolini (then a Socialist) spoke
about Ferrer's death in a public speech in
Forlì (October 14, 1909).
In Anarchism and Other Essays, Emma Goldman
called Ferrer a "rebel" and said that "his
spirit would rise in just indignation against
the iron régime of his country...".
Shortly after his execution, numerous supporters
of Ferrer's ideas became much more vocal in
the United States of America formed what were
called Modern Schools, or Ferrer Schools,
modeled after la Escuela Moderna. Emma Goldman
also played a key role in creation of the
Ferrer Association which attracted many prominent
American thinkers like Upton Sinclair, Jack
London, and Charles Edward Russell.
The first and most notable Modern School was
formed in New York City in 1911, and then
later a community was founded around a school,
known as the Ferrer Colony and Modern School.
Historian Carolyn Boyd labelled him as 'the
high priest of anarchist education in Spain'.
== Works ==
The Origins and Ideals of the Modern School
(1913)
== References ==
== Bibliography ==
Archer, William (2001) [1911]. The Life, Trial,
and Death of Francisco Ferrer. Honolulu, HI:
University Press of the Pacific. ISBN 0898755093.
Avrich, Paul (1980). The Modern School Movement:
Anarchism and Education in the United States.
Princeton University Press. pp. 37–74.
Avrich, Paul (2005) [1995]. Anarchist Voices:
An Oral History of Anarchism in America. Edinburg,
Oakland-West Virginia: AK Press. ISBN 1904859275.
Baer, James A. (2015), Anarchist Immigrants
in Spain and Argentina, Urbana, Chicago and
Springfield: University of Illinois Press,
ISBN 9780252038990
Fidler, Geoffrey C. (1985). The Escuela Moderna
Movement of Francisco Ferrer: "Por la Verdad
y la Justicia". History of Education Quarterly.
25. Cambridge University Press. pp. 103–132.
doi:10.2307/368893. JSTOR 368893.
Goldman, Emma (1911) [1910]. "Chapter 6: Francisco
Ferrer and the Modern School". Anarchism and
Other Essays. New York & London: Mother Earth
Publishing Association.
Laqua, Daniel (2014). "Freethinkers, anarchists
and Francisco Ferrer: the making of a transnational
solidarity campaign". European Review of History.
21 (4): 467–484. doi:10.1080/13507486.2014.933185.
Sprading, Charles T. (2007) [1913]. "XXIX.
Francisco Ferrer". Liberty and the Great Libertarians.
Auburn, AL: The Ludwig von Mises Institute.
== External links ==
Francisco Ferrer Collection MSS 248* Special
Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library
Francisco Ferrer Page at the Daily Bleed's
Anarchist Encyclopedia
Fundació Ferrer i Guàrdia
Francisco Ferrer articles at the Kate Sharpley
Library
Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia entry at the Anarchy
Archives
Die Erfindung des Globalen Protests
Archer, William, The Life, Trial, and Death
of Francisco Ferrer, New York: Moffat, Yard
& Co.
