A Hundred Years of Classical Mythology in Spanish Educational Systems

Ideology is the central theme of Luis Unceta Gómez’s paper, as he gives an overview of the role of classical mythology in successive  educational systems in Spain’s recent history and suggests that the difficulty in incorporating mythology in Spanish education is fundamentally due to ideological and religious issues. The author shows how many of the textbooks used in schools in the late 1800s and early 1900s were dominated by explicit moral and religious precautions about the content of classical mythology.
Educational reforms in the first decades of the twentieth century adopted the French model, which, since it imposed secularization on the educational system, led to tension between conservatives in Spain, who were identified with the Church, and modernists. The weight of Catholicism had the effect of limiting mythology content in the curricula; it was considered unimportant and even morally corrupting. With time, mythological content has been gradually normalized, and a significant nucleus of humanities subjects has been formed within compulsory secondary education, with classical civilization becoming a popular subject, particularly under the impetus of popular culture. The religious influence remains, however, in a negative manner; in tandem with the recent popularity and in-depth knowledge of classical myth, there has been a growing ignorance of the Bible, with biblical references no longer understood by youth.

The complete volume "Our Mythical Education: The Reception of Classical Myth Worldwide in Formal Education, 1900–2020",   edited by Lisa Maurice, focuses on school education including a wide geographical and chronological range.  The volume covers Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas (including Canada, the USA, and South America), Australia and New Zealand.

Published in the series “Our Mythical Childhood” edited by Prof. Katarzyna Marciniak, Faculty of “Artes Liberales”, University of Warsaw, Poland.

Open Access of the complete volume is available at https://www.wuw.pl/product-eng-14887-Our-Mythical-Education-The-Reception-of-Classical-Myth-Worldwide-in-Formal-Education-1900-2020-PDF.html