LOS NEGRALES, Madrid, Spain.
On July 28, as part of the celebration of the feast of St. Pedro Poveda, Volume II of the Critical Edition of “Ensayos y Proyectos Pedagógicos”of Saint Pedro Poveda was presented.
Maite Uribe, President of the Teresian Association (TA); Professor Margarita Bartolomé, main editor; Carmen Rita Garcia, Co-Chair of the Critical Edition of the Works of Saint Pedro Poveda; and Mónica González, Director of Narcea Ediciones, described the main features of the book “Ensayos y Proyectos Pedagógicos” to a large audience.
The President commented on some of the deep elements that run through the author's work and are like the soil for the development of his projects and pedagogical achievements. She chose the following for her comments:
1. Fidelity to Memory
2. Empathy with the time in which one lives
3. The coordinates that provide the overall vision of the Work
4. The commitment to the challenges of each moment. As an example in this very special case, Pedro Poveda's response to the nascent University Pedagogy
5. Knowing after thinking, a motto that follows from a requirement of the whole Work: study, learn, teach.
To remember is a task of loyalty
"Those who have long passed are still within us. As deposit, heritage, and foundation. As a burden on our destiny. As blood bubbling and as a gesture that rises from the depths of time, " said Maite Uribe quoting Rainer Maria Rilke, referring to the importance of remembering in the life of the association. "Thus, keeping up the historical memory of the Work (TA) is a task of loyalty" she said. "Forgetfulness is a risk of incalculable consequences for one's identity. Saint Pedro Poveda knew it well when he said that in their memory were the roots giving sap to the Work and that it had to trace its genesis, its foundation and the parent idea that gave it birth".
She highlighted "the team effort, coordinated by Mª Dolores Gómez Molleda, who has taken charge of the Critical Edition of the Works of Saint Pedro Poveda, authentic founding memory of the Work".
The President of the Teresian Association offered in her presentation an overview of the book as well as key concepts for reading it to place Saint Pedro Poveda within the group of educational thinkers of our time. "The author is profiled in these pages as man challenged by and committed to the concerns of his contemporaries, especially in his empathy with the educational “regeneracionismo” (renewal) of 1898 and the cultural “regeneracionismo” of 1914, which addressed the situation in Spain as a problem of education."
"If we were to trace on the documentary corpus of this book two virtual coordinates, one covering the author's writings from 1902 to 1916, entitled plan of educational regeneration, centered on the teacher and the school; and a second coordinate which we might call cultural regeneration, found in the writings of Poveda from 1917 to 1936, focusing in on the reform of the University, the reader might approach a new overview of the educational ideas of Pedro Poveda, taking into account the foundation of Christian humanism underlying his pedagogical writings,“ she said.
Poveda faced a new challenge, possibly driven by the ideas of Newman, published in the Bulletin of the Teresian Association. The article titled “Pedagogical Ideas of Newman” was probably based on the author's work, discussions on the purpose and nature of university education where the importance of not excluding teaching theology at the University was underlined."
Why the title?
Margarita Bartolomé began her presentation by commenting on the title of this second volume: “Ensayos y proyectos pedagógicos." We might ask, Why that title? Would it not be better to speak of educational texts? A quick answer might be: Because its author wanted it!" she said.
"A few months before his death (in April 1936), Poveda tries to explain again, the central thinking in the origins of his Work and that he considers "unchanged since the beginning." And what does he give us to understand it? Five pamphlets, written between 1911 and 1912, organized in a way that may help the reader better understand this main thought. Thus, he tells us: "Since it is interesting that this is clear, I want that we publish an edition of five booklets, which were already published, in this order: Alrededor de un Proyecto, Simulacro pedagógico, Ensayo de Proyectos Pedagógicos, Diario de una Fundación y Juicios de Prensa.”
In her presentation, Professor Margarita Bartolomé wanted to "connect those five booklets with the educational practice promoted and carried out by the author and recognize what lines of action are open to us and challenge us in the XXI century" (the text, in Spainsh, can be downloaded at the end of this page).
She concluded: "If we read his texts, from his commitment to human and social development in Guadix till his last work in women's universities, through the creation of a broad educational movement built around the Teresian Association, which includes Education Professors, former students and teachers of his educational centers, we find that the coherence between his pedagogical action and the principles and values foun in these pamphlets, remains intact.
"All these actions respond to the germinal idea, the author's vision that will be compared with the study and the data provided by reality; everything begins with small tryouts which acquire a formidable expansive force with joint efforts and perseverance. And in all, it is the human factor, people who are able to combine faith and knowledge in their work of evangelization; to create welcoming environments, to establish authentic relationships that help people grow, that give and receive confidence, able to embody the values of the gospel, to go through life "doing good." In a word, people who are able to love tenderly, to communicate and to relate with nonviolence in a violent world are the ones who can truly and effectively transform the society in which we live. I conclude with what, for me, is the synthesis of the educational proposal of Poveda: "I ask you for a new system, a new method, some procedures as old as new inspired by love."
Raison d'etre of the Critical Edition
Carmen Rita Garcia began by remembering and thanking Maria Dolores Gómez Molleda, Director of the Critical Edition of the Works of St. Pedro Poveda, who could not be present. The audience responded with a loud and prolonged applause.
In her presentation she also mentioned "the perosn who, with her book on Poveda’s pedagogy, took an absolutely decisive step for him to be known as an educationalist and humanist: Angeles Galino, a especial woman on every count who gave her all to the Association."
She highlighted the place that the study of the writings of the founder has in the history of the TA and the rationale for the years dedicated to the development of the critical edition of the author's work: "Its primary purpose is to get the original version of Poveda’s documents with the greatest possible guarantee so that they may constitute a first source of knowledge for specialists and scholars, an instrument for personal and collective work to contribute to advancing the knowledge of the author, his thinking and his work."
Carmen Rita Garcia said that this fall will be 100 years since Josefa Segovia shared with Isabel del Castillo her desire to publish the works of Pedro Poveda. In 1925 Poveda himself wrote in a letter addressed to María Díaz Jiménez that people were telling him that the members of the TA ought to know and study the writings of the founder in order to acquire the spirit of the Work.
The 1st General Assembly of 1928 proposed a publication with the texts of the founder. In 1977, the General Assembly asked Gómez Molleda and Sandra Bartolini a complete critical edition of his writings. The first volume, “Creí por esto hablé,” dedicated to the spiritual writings of St. Pedro Poveda, was presented in Madrid in November 2005 and these days, just published, its third edition. Also in Madrid, in May 2012, volume V was presented, with Poveda’s collected correspondence from 1888 to 1917. Today, on this memorable holiday, the second volume, dedicated to pedagogical writings, is presented.
Volume III is being developed with the participation of people in Salamanca, Madrid and Chicago. This book will bring together the legislative writings. Volume IV will be dedicated to Poveda’s personal jurnal and volumes VI, VII and VIII will complete the letters of the author."
She ended with some words of journalist Arias Abad, contemporary and friend of Pedro Poveda: "(...) and in the coming century, when women are fully reinstated in their rights because of the cultural work of the Teresian Academies, the pedagogical figure of Father Poveda will have a monument in the national admiration, and so will will Fr. Manjon, like Pestalozzi, Froebel, Fenelon, Dupanloup and others have it internationally."
Narcea Ediciones, a publishing company at the service of education
Monica Gonzalez, Director of Narcea Ediciones, thanked the audience and the speakers and explained what publishing this volume of the Works of Poveda has meant to NARCEA: in this case pedagogical content.
NARCEA defines itself, since its foundation, as "a publishing company at the service of education." The opportunity to read, review, disseminate and promote the educational proposal of Poveda, with the publication of this volume is directly linked to the purposes and the daily task of the publisher.
NARCEA publishes books on education -almost 1500 educational titles to date.
The passion for education, teaching, for teacher training, for influencing the depth of the person, schooling, all with a Christian perspective, are issues that are in the pages of this book from beginning to end. These are to be present in each title that Narcea wishes to put in the hands of educators.
“We have learned a lot by reading these pages written directly by Poveda; we have been confirmed in the work we do; we have caught once more the urgency of placing education at the focus of the formation of people ... And we have felt the urge to go on and not to give up in this effort to further researching the meaning and practice of education to improve it as much as possible."
"We are confident, she added, that putting good books in the hands of good and confident educators is something that comes from the very heart of the thought and achievements of Poveda; and it is something that urges us, that Poveda has entrusted us with, his legacy, and we cannot stop doing it.”
Publishing, and publishing this kind of books is very worthwhile. It is a priviledge ... and it makes us also an instrument of the symphony that weaves history. Fr. Pedro, great communicator and aware of the importance of publications, well reminded us in a short writing of 1928: "What is written remains and we are better judged by our writings than by the words" (Letter of Pedro Poveda, November 4, 1928)
The full texts of the presentations may be downloaded (in Spanish)
Info.IT.