Page:Historia Verdadera del Mexico profundo.djvu/89

educational system was born with the Olmecs, before the Christian era) this type of education (compulsory, free and extended) for the entire population, which in Europe was only achieved in the 20th century.

The first public school was created in Italy in 1596. Popular education in the Anahuac probably has its origins in the advent of the Olmec culture, three thousand years before Europeans. Confidence in education is one of the most important legacies of the ancient grandparents that make up contemporary Mexico.

"To be able to penetrate even a little on the education ideals among the nahuas, it is necessary to begin from another of their fundamental conception. We refer to what the Nahua sages came to consider the "human person"... "your face, your heart." Obviously these words are designated for the speaker or interlocutor. We found these not in isolated cases, but very often, that is in almost all speeches pronounced in accordance with the rules of the Nahua tecpilatolli, that is —the noble or cultured language—.

In ixtli, in yóllotl —the face the heart—, always symbolizes what today we would call moral features and dynamic principle of a human being. And it is interesting to note, albeit in passing, the parallelism that exists in this point between the Nahuatl and the Greek cultures." (Miguel Leon Portilla. 1980)

In the rich literature which preserves luminous fragments of ancient thought, we can find lights that can guide us on this vast wealth of educational heritage that makes up the essence of the "Being Mexican". The Codex Matritense^[1] of the Royal Academy notes:

The mature man:
strong heart as stone,

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1. “The oldest version, the Codex Matritense, corresponds to the material recompiled in Tlatelolco in Nahuatl. It has five books, and includes 175 illustrations. Another version is the Madrid codex. This is a very heavily censored translation by Sahagún of the Florentine codex, done to appeal to the Spanish authorities.