Education in The Colony English

EDUCATION IN THE COLONY
In colonial times, education had two main objectives. The first was to form good Christians,
and the second was to form good officials to administer Spanish power. Those in charge of
achieving these objectives were the religious organizations, mainly the Jesuits. In colonial
times, only people who belonged to the elite had access to education. Within this group were
the Spanish children, the mestizo children of the conquistadors, the children of the Andean
elite and foundlings girls.
In addition to the formal education that took place in schools, convents and universities, there
was an education provided from parents to children and an education that took place among
the guilds of artisans, the latter being provided in colonial workshops also known as village
schools.
Between the XVI and XVIII centuries there were 2 types of schools, which are the following:
The school of western character: Also called school of obedience, whose main objective was to
form Spanish, Indians and mestizos who would venerate the Spanish power. These schools
were administered by religious organizations and were based on the history of Europe and
kings.
The school of indigenous character: This school was a little hidden and formed the Andean
elite, in which the Incas were venerated. It was based on chronicles such as those of the Inca
Garcilaso de la Vega that told the stories of the Incas.
In colonial times, a method of teaching prevailed which was the scholastic method, this
method consisted in the use of logic in the dictation, it was a method of premises and
conclusions. The classes were dictated in Latin and had to be correctly argued, it was easy to
learn and at the same time rigorous. Scholasticism was the philosophy of the time, it had a
large dose of theology.
The official studies or what today we would call educational levels were divided into primary
studies, minor studies and major studies. The first were offered to children between 4 and 7
years of age, and were taught in convents and premises maintained by the town councils, at
this level they were taught reading and writing in Spanish, notions of mathematics, catechism
and some music. The minor studies were taught between the ages of 12 and 14, in the
convents of the traditional religious orders such as "Los Dominicos", "Los Mercedarios", "Los
Agustinos", "Los Franciscanos" and even "Los Betlemitas", at this level, which was equivalent
to the last years of primary school and all the high school, grammar, rhetoric, dialectics,
humanities, mathematics and Latin were taught, the latter because at this level the students
were prepared for university and their classes were taught in this language. The major studies
were given having concluded the first 2 levels and were directed only to the elites, they were
dictated in universities and colleges, in this level the courses of law and theology were
privileged, the classes were dictated in Latin, they had a scholastic method of teaching, which
means, the professor read in Latin in almost all the class and in the last minutes the students
could ask questions, there is a reason for the application of this method, and it was that the
professors had to prepare their classes beforehand and to take them to a censor of the
university to review them so that other ideas were not filtered into the students that gave rise
to problems to the colony. At the end of this level they could obtain the degrees of bachelor of
arts, bachelor of laws, theology or canons, the latter could also go to the University of San
Marcos and apply for the degree of doctor of laws or canons.
There were 3 types of colleges in the viceroyalty, the colleges of religious orders, the major
colleges and the colleges for curacas, the first ones formed priests, taught Latin, arts and
theology, a representative college of this type was the "San Pablo" college of the Jesuits. The
major colleges were boarding schools for students of "San Marcos", where they reviewed the
lessons of the university, taught arts, humanities such as law, theology, philosophy and
grammar; the main boarding schools were "San Felipe", "San Marcos", "San Martín" and the
seminary of "Santo Toribio", they had a maximum academic level or higher. The schools for
curacas trained the sons of caciques to perform administrative tasks for the benefit of the
colony; they taught literature, oratory, arithmetic, Latin, customs and good European
manners; there were 2 schools of this type, the "Principe" school in Lima and "San Francisco de
Borja" in Cusco; the indigenous nobility studied in these schools and then returned to their
places of origin to be intermediaries between the nobility of the viceroyalty and the people.
There were isolated cases in which some schools were created for black slaves.
Education for women was a different story; women were on the margins of the formal
education system. Their instruction was given mainly in convents, in the family and by private
tutors. In the convents there was also this hierarchy where greater importance was given to
ethnic and economic origin, in these places women were taught to be good Christians, some
tasks, to read and write, they did not reach the university. In the XVII century, the "Santa Cruz
de Atocha" school was founded for orphans, illegitimate girls, without known parents but
accepted in some important house or churches, these girls had a certain status. In the 18th
century, women's education was oriented towards motherhood, there was a relationship
between women, motherhood and education, and only for the elite.
In 1748 the corregidor Sebastián Márquez Escudero created the "San Sebastián" school in
Cusco, where boys and girls of any social stratum were accepted. However, the front seats
were for white-skinned and good-looking children and the Indians sat in the back.
In 1759 a reform of the scholastic method that was taught in Latin was proposed, he proposes
to establish a teaching method that would be taught in Spanish and through rhyming verses,
rejecting punishments in the field of education.
I found it a very interesting documentary, you can see a great division between social classes,
education was not considered a fundamental right as it is now. In addition to the division
between ethnic groups, there was a huge difference between the education of men and
women. I consider that it was a very closed education, which did not allow research, did not
facilitate free thinking and this is understandable since we know one of its main objectives
which was to train good officials to administer the Spanish power and maintain it in order not
to give rise to revolutionary ideas. I was surprised that the teachers were religious, that is,
there was a rigid and authoritarian teaching from the religious point of view.
In my opinion, this division of privilege in education is maintained today because, national

education has a big difference in level compared to private education. Not many people have
access to a good education and to study at a university. However, there has been a great
evolution in terms of teaching methods and greater inclusion in society. I think that if reforms
are made to current education, it will evolve and improve, just as education evolved from
colonial times to the present.

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EDUCATION IN THE COLONY

In my opinion, this division of privilege in education is maintained today because, national

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