Higienismo y educación. Las primeras colonias escolares de vacaciones de Cartagena (1907)

Abstract

Country holidays were created by Walter Bion in the summer 1876. These institutions spread rapidly in different European countries. In Spain, the first country holiday was undertaken in 1887 by the Pedagogical Museum under the direction of M. B. Cossío. Twenty years la ter, in 1907, they were carried out for the first time in the region of Murcia, in Cartagena. Three main aspects converged in the apparition of these country holidays. In the first place, a clear hygienic intention, because it was an initiative in order to preven! diseases among weakeaned children, strengthening their health. Secondly, country holidays showed a philantropic and charitable character as they were promoted mainly, at least at the beginning, by certain sectors of the local bourgeoise. Finally, country holidays had an educational dimension as they tried to achieve the children's integral education (physical, intellectual and moral education). These three aspects were present in the origins, organization and development of the first country holidays carried out in Cartagena in 1907.