The Development of Educational and Vocational Training Councilors, María del Carmen Castillo, and Culture and Sports Councilor, Patricia del Pozo, have inaugurated the exhibition space of the San Isidoro Secondary Education Institute in Seville, located in the old chapel of the educational center.
Castillo has emphasized that this space is a «true treasure that we can enjoy thanks to the work of the teaching staff and the various management teams that have carried out their work at this center and have shown a commitment to education that goes beyond professional duty.» In this way, with this ‘museum,’ the history and culture of Seville are brought closer to society, especially to the students of the Sevillian city.
The councilor has reported that the center’s library has bibliographic resources totaling more than 20,000 volumes, and the number of cataloged titles in the so-called ‘ancient collection’ is over 2,500. It contains copies dating from 1515 to 1900 and constitutes a collection of ancient editions, facsimiles, manuscripts, and maps.
Notable editions of El Quijote in tiny sizes and in different languages like Chinese or Tamazight (a Berber variant) stand out. The oldest book is a comedy by Aristophanes, and there are also ballad books suitable for the pockets of troubadours.
Likewise, the councilor has recalled that illustrious figures from the world of education, science, politics, and other cultural realms of the country have passed through the classrooms of San Isidoro, such as Manuel Machado, Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero, Romero Murube, Luis Cernuda, Severo Ochoa, Manuel Losada Villasante, or Emilio Lledó, among others. The current Physics and Chemistry and Natural Sciences laboratories feature equipment and instruments from their former laboratories and cabinets, objects from the Museum.
On her part, the Culture and Sports Councilor has emphasized the importance of educational spaces like the one at IES San Isidoro to «preserve, conserve, and showcase our history and heritage». «Just as an educational law approved by a Parliament or the writings of an expert in pedagogy are historical sources, a school composition, a schedule, a textbook, a blackboard, a microscope, a test tube, or an abacus still speak to us today and allow us to firsthand understand the society of the past,» Del Pozo pointed out.
After naming some of the outstanding students who have passed through this Sevillian educational center over its 180 years of existence, Del Pozo has stressed that the «list of excellent students is far from closed, as the names of today’s young students, who are the present and future of Andalusia, are still missing.»