Francisco FERRER Y GUARDIA (1859-1909)
"There must be co-education of social classes, just as there is co-education of the sexes. (...) There is only one sensible and enlightened way: that of co-education between the rich and the poor.
(...) We assert without ambiguity that we want men who will continue to develop constantly; men capable of constantly destroying and rebuilding their environment and renewing themselves. (...) Society fears such men. One cannot expect it to put in place an education system that would produce them."
Francisco Ferrer La Escuela Moderna, Barcelone, 1912,
La Escuela Moderna, in Normand Baillargeon, Education and Freedom,
Montreal, Lux Éditeur, 2005, vol. 1, pp. 284, 285, 297.
"Francisco Ferrer believed that no one is evil by their own will and that all the evil in the world comes from ignorance. That is why the ignorant assassinated him, and criminal ignorance still perpetuates itself today through new and tireless inquisitions. Yet, in the face of them, a few victims, including Ferrer, will always remain alive."
Albert Camus, cited by A. Novoa and C. Vilanou, in Quinze pédagogues (Jean Houssaye, dir.), Paris, Armand Colin Éditeur, 1994, p. 85.