Señor Siurot's Children
McKechnie, N. K.
214 THE COMMONWEAL June 25, 1930 SENOR SIUROT'S CHILDREN By N. K. McKECHNIE SPAIN is hardly a country one might expect to furnish original ideas in education, and yet in the seaport town...
...The third time round another went down for coast they see ships enter the harbor after long voy- the same fault...
...We found Don Manuel in his private room, sitting at his desk, his head resting on his hands...
...He then proceeded to draw a rough outline map of "What year is that...
...And yet these boys are all from the poorest class of a rough seaport town—a most unpromising environment...
...It booted not that terminate in Huelva come from...
...The dining-table, at which the thirty students ate their frugal meals, the backless seats on which they sat, the walls and floors, the partitions between the cubicles in the dormitories—all were of tile...
...We made our small contributions, and he thanked us, but said it was not from chance visitors like ourselves that he expected monetary support, but from the rich Catholics of the district who owed it as a duty...
...the applications from business men for Siurot's boys are always more numerous than can be filled...
...the boy whom he relieved took his place among the Their town being a seaport on Spain's Atlantic judges...
...Tell them," said he, "that what you have seen is the work of the Catholic Church...
...Did I do well or ill...
...Did I do well or ill...
...There are two fundamental rules at which Don Manuel has arrived...
...Don "Birmingham—manufacture of steel goods," folManuel explained to me through the interpreter that in lowed the second geography the boys were first taught about their own "The St...
...The various phases of the seven-hundred-year-long conflict were all represented by the boys, but of course I could not follow it all, though I understood enough to appreciate the value of the method...
...a rush and encircled the Andalusians...
...With a piece of chalk he rapidly down, but our time was limited, and so Senor Siurot drew a very rough sketch of the northwest coast of switched the boys on to a lesson in the history of their France, placed a river and a dot, and asked the boys own country...
...of the town of Huelva and its surroundings, the pro- "London—capital of the empire," cried the first boy...
...The floor also was of tiles, but of a darker color, and on its spacious area were squatted about a hundred children, boys of fron, six to eight years of age, grouped in various classes, each with a teacher in charge...
...And that is how it began...
...The end ronto, Berlin, Rome, Milan...
...Of the debate between two groups of boys representing Britain and France on the respective merits of their two countries...
...duties of adult life by means of games...
...cried the master, the north of Canada (choosing that country as a com- The boys answered in chorus...
...but unfortunately it was found all the acquired funds had been expended on the building and accessories, and none remained for a competent teacher to inaugurate and carry out the work...
...Then the action commenced, situated, at once had them correctly named...
...He was adaptit would hardly have been surprising to find these Spar- ing nature's method of instructing the young in the tan youths sleeping on marble slabs...
...Lawrence—the great river of Canada...
...from among the boys would call out their names...
...A man of highly strung temperament, he had given himself without stint during the past two or three hours and was feeling the strain...
...In the other group one boy went down about forty boys of from ten to twelve years of age and made a back, and the others, each in turn, jumped were being taught by two teachers...
...they are led to acquire knowledge of other lands and "Wellington—the capital of New Zealand," shouted nations than their own...
...He seemed to hear a voice saying, "These children need you more than do the wealthy clients whose causes you plead in the courts of justice...
...vince of Andalusia and the country of Spain...
...For Van- Each group took its proper station on a large map of couver he drew a simple line from north to south, Spain outlined upon the floor, having established their looked at the boys meaningly, drew another (the right to the territory by their satisfactory replies, boundary line) from east to west, placed his dot, and Senor Siurot clapped his hands, and the Moors made at once got the reply...
...At once a dozen voices shouted, "Paris...
...In this small town at the mouth of the Rio Tinto the rougher element common to all seaports seems to have been more than usually obtrusive and to have been a thorn in the flesh to the more respectable members of the community...
...Toronto he drew a very rough sketch (evidently First, each band had to say who they were and draughtsmanship was not his strong point) of the answer questions about their customs, religion and Great Lakes and, marking dots where the cities are form of government...
...He was a man of about forty-five years of age with a pleasant expression on his fine, strong face...
...And so with all the rest...
...After a little while Don Manuel appeared...
...gree they do this I was given a unique demonstration...
...I have never seen anything so spotlessly clean— not even an up-to-date hospital...
...Children like to sit on the ground and draw things, don't they...
...these maps in relief the river beds are deep grooves and And so on, until all twenty boys had had their turn the boys pour water on the mountains to the north and the judges had found no mistake...
...There was a man in Huelva called Don Manuel Siurot, a well-to-do barrister and devoted churchman...
...asks Don Manuel in his little book...
...The northern provinces began to free themselves from the toils, then to unite for the struggle to expel the invaders...
...The little children were still busily engaged at their game of arithmetic learning on the floor of the big courtyard when we went out...
...of leap frogl The boys were formed into two groups, After the inspection of the training-school we be- one of which were to act as judges of the correctness of took ourselves to a large well-lighted classroom where the replies...
...and of the delightful part-singing of little French songs (for the principal of the French college in Huelva gives his services gratuitously for the teaching of French...
...enjoyable exercise of mind and body...
...The tiled floor was his slate...
...what it was...
...Each youngster had -a...
...He turned to the archpriest and said: "Will you take me for your teacher...
...The fourth time new names were eviages from distant lands, and from this starting-point dently getting harder to find...
...and gives as answer: "I can only say that these poor children have taught me the true worth of life...
...of the lesson in anatomy and mechanics of breathing, in which each boy represented a portion of the human body...
...He had no specialized training for the position, but he brought to the work a lofty enthusiasm, a trained yet agile brain, and a remarkable understanding of child nature...
...I was privileged to be shown over the school by Don Manuel himself, who also demonstrated for two hours with his boys his methods of teaching...
...and are led from these he pleaded he had not heard it given before...
...We said goodby and went away, and then I felt I would like to have a tiny share in the continuance of such a good work, so we went back again...
...and one was at once struck with the naturalness of the scene...
...Can anyone name two sounder principles on which to base instruction...
...I was quite reJune 25, 1930 THE COMMONWEAL 215 lieved on looking into the cubicles to notice that the that dread term of its terrors and turned it into an bedsteads were of iron and provided with mattresses...
...On calling at the school with the lady who had procured me the introduction, we passed from the street into a large courtyard open to the sky, with an arcade for shelter in bad weather along one side...
...For Chicago and lusia, another Granada, another Castile, and so on...
...Everything was tiled...
...But gradually the ever-widening circle of the conquering Moors drew into its embrace all but a few individuals on the northern limits of the country...
...Other questions folpliment to the nationality of his visitor, he informed lowed which I did not catch, and then another clap of me) and as he drew in Hudson Bay, the Mackenzie the hands, and this time Granada (I think it was) was River, the Great Slave Lake, and so on, sundry voices roped in...
...Something-or-other" (I didn't catch the name and Here is the list I handed him: Paris, Chicago, Mon- don't know enough geography to supply it) "the capitreal, Bombay, London, Edinburgh, Vancouver, To- tal of British Guiana...
...To this man the archpriest was bewailing the situation, and Don Manuel says that as he listened the "call" came...
...It Interspersed with questions and answers the gradual was an impressive exhibition, but more was to follow, conquest of Spain by the Mohammedans was repreHe showed us the method by which he conducted an sented in the most graphic manner—a check being ob"examination," and please note how he has stripped served in their victorious progress when Catalonia shook herself free...
...In this room over him, calling out as they did so the name of somewere tables on which were modeled in high relief maps thing British, with a few words of comment on it...
...They were divided into bands, one of which repreHe then asked a few questions about Paris, and I sented the Moors, another the inhabitants of Andasuppose got satisfactory replies...
...Senor Siurot then formed of the game would probably come when all the players all the boys in the room into one class and went to had made a mistake and so had their turns at being the blackboard...
...The "examinaBut although this was interesting in that it cast a tion" (again on account of my nationality) was to be sidelight on Senor Siurot's many-sided character, it is upon the British empire, and took the form of a game of his methods of teaching that I wish to write...
...As we bade the senor goodby I told him I should probably write a report of what I had seen and asked him if there was anything he would like me to say...
...but it is only in Senor Siurot's school (so far as I know) that one finds the whole establishment—classrooms, methods, curriculum, everything—built fearlessly on these foundations...
...The man of law gave up his practice and took up the lowly duties of an elementary school teacher...
...piece of chalk in his hand with which he was making letters or doing sums according to the lesson in which his class was engaged...
...214 THE COMMONWEAL June 25, 1930 SENOR SIUROT'S CHILDREN By N. K. McKECHNIE SPAIN is hardly a country one might expect to furnish original ideas in education, and yet in the seaport town of Huelva may be found a recently established institution well worthy of study...
...What are the methods by which Siurot has obtained this result...
...and gradually he has built up a system of training that surely would be known in every civilized country were it not that Senor Siurot is still too immersed in the problems that beset the management of his school to busy himself with the spread of his theories, beyond writing one or two small pamphlets...
...Wellington—a famous British general," cried the Don Manuel asked me to write down on a piece of next, evidently saved at the last moment, paper a list of towns in any part of the world I chose...
...because Christ, who alone is worthy, lives in them...
...and of the singing of a religious litany in the old convent chapel whither we all repaired and summarily evicted the pupil-teachers who were at their customary afternoon service...
...I wish I had space to tell of the other demonstrations Don Manuel gave us...
...On "Calcutta—the capital of India...
...they see where the railways that name that had already been given...
...Tht walls rose high enough to preclude the sun being troublesome, but being faced with white tiles they reflected an immense amount of light...
...The answer is in the fact that not one of the thousand boys on the school roll ever has to seek a position on leaving it...
...the first, cheerfulness in the teacher, and the second, what he calls "His Majesty, El Grafico"—that is to say, the graphic representation, the visible symbol of the invisible abstraction that is to be taught...
...he ought preliminaries to take an interest in the other provinces to have been paying attention...
...and it certainly was a great moment when, following the union of Castile and Aragon after the marriage of their respective monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, Granada, the last possession of the Moors (held till 1492) fell, and the entire class of boys, joined hand in hand in one great circle, standing on a map of their country, sang a national song...
...And though you will miss the powerful influence of his personality—which impressed me much and must have an inspiring effect on every boy who comes under it— those interested in the upbringing of youth will be able to judge from the following account of what I saw whether there are not some points in his system— a system, he says, evolved by sheer common sense after years of experimenting and failure—whether he has not devised some methods worthy to be adopted by educationalists the world over...
...down he must go, and of their country...
...What young ragamuffin could help acquiring an uplifting knowledge of his country's great past when taught by such a method as this...
...district, its characteristics and its productions...
...This teachers' training-school was a new thing that he had at last, after many years of labor, managed to collect money enough to establish, and he was evidently immensely proud of it, as indeed he might well be if the outward appearances were evidence of internal excellence...
...He apologized for keeping us waiting, saying he had been fixing some electrical household appliance that had gone wrong, and at once suggested that I should first see his pupilteachers' quarters...
...Probably every trained teacher has had impressed upon him their importance...
...Then they and notice whence the water in the river of their own went at it again, and this time a boy repeated some town has its origin...
...And so it went on...
...Then began the ebb of the tide...
...Some disgraceful scenes that attended the visit of a cardinal-archbishop to open a school in a remodeled Franciscan convent amply emphasized the need of some ameliorating influence which the school was expected to furnish...
...he asks in one of these, speaking of his offer to fill the vacant post...
...But I have not the space...
...To what an astonishing de- one boy...
Vol. 12 • June 1930 • No. 8
