Antifascist Arithmetic primer

In the 1930’s, Spain had very high rates of illiteracy, but this did not prevent people from being active participants in the process of social, cultural, and political modernization that had started at the end of the 19th century. Interest in improving urban and rural working conditions and understanding the political situation of the Republic was widespread. Even though many people could not read, they kept themselves informed by asking others to read articles from the local and national press and the publications of the emerging social and political organizations out loud.

Created in 1931, the Pedagogical Missions sponsored by the National Pedagogical Museum and the Free Educational Institution, and supported by the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, played a key role in efforts to spread literacy. And they were the basis for what would become the Culture Militias during the Civil War. The most notable of those Militias, that associated with Enrique Lister’s Fifth Regiment, enjoyed the support of important cultural figures like Rafael Alberti and quickly spread to other militias created at the outbreak of the conflict. 

The Culture Militias were so successful that in January 1937, the government gave them official status. The curriculum had three levels. The basic level included reading, writing, and simple arithmetic; the second, basic culture, had more advanced subjects like geometry, natural sciences and geography; while the third, middle culture included typing, accounting, French, and drawing. To teach these subjects, primers like Antifascist Arithmetic shown here were created and distributed by the Ministry of Public Instruction. During the Civil War, more than one thousand instructors participated in these programs, and primary schools, educational centres for soldiers, and hundreds of travelling libraries were created.

FLC