The First School Colony of Vacations for Poor Children of the Public Schools of Madrid (1887)

The study presented is the result of a historical research that seeks to revalue the initiative of organization of the school colonies. In the last quarter of the 19th century, the living conditions of an important part of the infancy in Spain were very precarious. A group of persons, worried by the regeneration of the Spanish society, related with the Free Educational Institution (ILE), achieved of the public power the foundation of an official center: The Pedagogic Museum of Primary Instruction. Manuel B. Cossío, the director of the Museum and favorite disciple of Francisco Giner de los Ríos, with scanty means but with illusion and imagination, organized by official way in our country the first school colony of vacations for poor children of the public schools of Madrid. The consultation of bibliographic sources of first order has allowed us to confirm that thanks to diverse economic, official and private supports, the colony was carried out in the summer of 1887. The planning, organization and development of the initiative was happening for bringing into play multiple educational activities. Such excellent results of the experience in the physical and intellectual aspects, they placed to the school colony as model in his class. The continuity was guaranteed, was absent that other institutions and organizations were adding to the colonial current in our territory