Escuela Moderna
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La Escuela Moderna (trans. The Modern School) was a progressive Spanish school that existed briefly at the start of the 20th century.
Founded in 1901 in Barcelona by free-thinker Francisco Ferrer, the school's stated goal was to educate the working class in a rational, secular and non-coercive setting. In practice, high tution fees restricted attendance at the school to the wealthier middle class students.
It closed in 1906 shortly after Ferrer was executed for sedition.
Today, the only remaining archives from the school are held in the special collections department of the University of California in San Diego.
La Escuela Moderna, and Ferrer's ideas generally, formed the inspiration for a series of Modern Schools in the United States. The first and most notable of these was started in New York City in 1911.