Book Breaks Chains of Ignorance 25 Centimos Second Spanish Republic 1938 Authentic Coin Money for Jewelry (Public Education) (Hole in Coin)

Book Breaks Chains of Ignorance 25 Centimos Second Spanish Republic 1938 Authentic Coin Money for Jewelry and Craft Making (Science and Art) (Spanish Civil War) (Olive Branch) (Oak Sprig) (Public Education) (Hole in Coin)

Obverse: Broken chains of ignorance, above an educational book about "CIENCIA" (science) and "ARTE" (art).
Lettering: REPUBLICA ESPAÑOLA
CIENCIA ARTE
1938

Reverse: Face value between an olive branch [symbolizing victory] and a sprig of oak [symbolizing strength]
Lettering: 25 Cts

Features
Issuer Spain
Period Second Republic (1931-1939)
Type Standard circulation coin
Year 1938
Value 25 Centimos (0.25 ESP)
Currency Peseta (1868-2001)
Composition Brass (Cu900 Zn100)
Weight 4.9 g
Diameter 21.5 mm
Thickness 1.5 mm
Shape Round with a round hole
Technique Milled
Orientation Coin alignment ↑↓
Demonetized Yes
Number N# 11168
References KM# 757, Cal# 7, Schön# 19

Wikipedia:
Education in Spain during the Second Republic and under the Franco dictatorship
FEBRUARY 26, 2019 ~ BARBARA LAMPLUGH
In the Spain of 1930, over half the population (and the great majority of women) were illiterate. More than a million children received no schooling at all. The nearest school might be more than two hours’ walk away and although there were plenty of families who thought it worth the effort in order for their children to receive education, not all were so motivated. Besides, the children were needed for agricultural work, often from a very young age. ...

The Second Republic, which put an end to the Primo de Rivera dictatorship and drove King Alfonso XIII into exile, was declared on April 14th 1931. It stood for democracy, progress and universal rights, a separation of Church and State. Under the Republic, power would rest with the people rather than the Army and the Catholic Church as before. The new constitution introduced agrarian reform, autonomy for the regions and recognition for their languages, reform of the Army to make it politically neutral, employment protection and equality for men and women. Universal suffrage was introduced for men and in 1933 this was extended to women.

Education – previously the preserve of the Church – was seen as one of the most vital tasks, the cornerstone of all the reforms to be introduced. Under the new constitution, free universal education – secular, compulsory and mixed – was established. A literate population was considered essential for the working of the Republic. Only through education would citizens become emancipated. It was also seen as a way of uniting a divided society. Ambitious plans were drawn up to create thousands of new schools (7,000 were built in a less than a year). ... While they were still being built, temporary schools were set up in any serviceable location – often a room in the Town Hall. To ensure that education reached the entire population, teachers were reimbursed for visits to people’s homes, including the most remote farmsteads and cortijos, where these itinerant teachers sometimes arrived on donkeys. Pedagogical Missions were set up to recruit and give proper training to teachers, most of whom had been up till then poorly educated and poorly paid. School inspections were introduced and teachers required to complete university-level courses. Their salaries as well as their status rose accordingly. They were regarded as the intellectuals of their communities and highly respected.

Education was generally seen as a great privilege. Not just children but older people too were offered opportunities to learn. The Republic encouraged all forms of culture. Clapped out lorries brought mobile libraries and museums, film projections and theatre productions (including García Lorca’s Barraca travelling theatre company) to far-flung villages so that the rural population did not miss out.

Religious education had been the responsibility of The Compañia de Jesús. This was now disbanded and religious orders prohibited from teaching. Teachers were no longer obliged to impart religious doctrine. In fact teaching methods could not have been more different from what had gone before. Children were taken out into the countryside to study from nature; they were encouraged to participate in debates instead of reciting from memory; boys and girls shared the same classrooms and were educated in equal rights. The opportunity to progress from nursery school to university was offered to all, depending on ability, attitude and vocation rather than economic circumstances. Hardly surprising that all this was anathema to the Church and the fascist party, the Falange.

When Franco came to power, all these progressive educational policies were immediately reversed. Over fifty per cent of the teachers were either assassinated or went into exile. Responsibility for education reverted to the Catholic Church.

Source: https://barbaralamplugh.com/2019/02/26/education-in-spain-during-the-second-republic-and-under-the-franco-dictatorship/

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Wikipedia:
The olive branch is a symbol of peace or victory allegedly deriving from the customs of ancient Greece, particularly regarding supplication to both the gods and persons in power and is found in most cultures of the Mediterranean basin. It became associated with peace in modern Europe and is also used in the Arab world. Despite claims of Ancient Greek origins, the symbol first appears in Ancient Egypt as a symbol of peace many centuries before appearing in ancient Greek mythology.

In Greek tradition, a hiketeria (ἱκετηρία) was an olive branch held by supplicants to show their status as such when approaching persons of power or in temples when supplicating the gods.

In Greek mythology, Athena competed with Poseidon for possession of Athens. Poseidon claimed possession by thrusting his trident into the Acropolis, where a well of sea-water gushed out. Athena took possession by planting the first olive tree beside the well. The court of gods and goddesses ruled that Athena had the better right to the land because she had given it the better gift. Olive wreaths were worn by brides[4] and awarded to olympic victors.

The olive branch was one of the attributes of Eirene on Roman Imperial coins. For example, the reverse of a tetradrachm of Vespasian from Alexandria, 70-71 AD, shows Eirene standing holding a branch upward in her right hand.

The Roman poet Virgil (70–19 BC) associated "the plump olive" with the goddess Pax (the Roman Eirene) and he used the olive branch as a symbol of peace in his Aeneid:

High on the stern Aeneas his stand,
And held a branch of olive in his hand,
While thus he spoke: "The Phrygians' arms you see,
Expelled from Troy, provoked in Italy
By Latian foes, with war unjustly made;
At first affianced, and at last betrayed.
This message bear: The Trojans and their chief
Bring holy peace, and beg the king's relief."

For the Romans, there was an intimate relationship between war and peace, and Mars, the god of war, had another aspect, Mars Pacifer, Mars the bringer of Peace, who is shown on coins of the later Roman Empire bearing an olive branch. Appian describes the use of the olive-branch as a gesture of peace by the enemies of the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus in the Numantine War and by Hasdrubal the Boeotarch of Carthage.

Although peace was associated with the olive branch during the time of the Greeks, the symbolism became even stronger under the Pax Romana when envoys used the olive branch as tokens of peace.

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Wikipedia:
The oak is a common symbol of strength and endurance and has been chosen as the national tree of many countries. ...

The prehistoric Indo-European tribes worshiped the oak and connected it with a thunder or lightning god, and this tradition descended to many classical cultures.

In Greek mythology, the oak is the tree sacred to Zeus, king of the gods. In Zeus's oracle in Dodona, Epirus, the sacred oak was the centerpiece of the precinct, and the priests would divine the pronouncements of the god by interpreting the rustling of the oak's leaves.

In Celtic polytheism, the name of the oak tree was part of the Proto-Celtic word for 'druid': *derwo-weyd- > *druwid-; however, Proto-Celtic *derwo- (and *dru-) can also be adjectives for 'strong' and 'firm', so Ranko Matasovic interprets that *druwid- may mean 'strong knowledge'. As in other Indo-European faiths, Taranis, being a thunder god, was associated with the oak tree. "Tree" and drus may also be cognate with "Druid," the Celtic priest to whom the oak was sacred. There has even been a study that shows that oaks are more likely to be struck by lightning than any other tree of the same height.

In Norse mythology, the oak was sacred to the thunder god, Thor. Thor's Oak was a sacred tree of the Germanic Chatti tribe.

In Baltic and Slavic mythology, the oak was the sacred tree of Latvian god Pērkons, Lithuanian Perkūnas, Prussian Perkūns and Slavic Perun, the god of thunder and one of the most important deities.

The oak also appears in the Hebrew tradition. In the Bible, the oak tree at Shechem is the site where Jacob buries the foreign gods of his people (Gen. 35:4). Also, Joshua erects a stone under an oak tree as the first covenant of the Lord (Josh. 24.25–7). In Isaiah 61, the prophet refers to the Israelites as "Oaks of Righteousness". Absalom's long hair (2 Samuel 18:9) gets caught in an oak tree, and allows Joab to kill him. ...

In some traditions of Wicca, the Oak King is one of the two faces of the Sun God. He is born on Yule and rules from Ostara to Mabon.