ABSTRACT
Children were the only privileged people in the new Argentina, and a target for Peronism. This chapter examines Juan Domingo Pern's educational creed in the context of the regime's general ideology. Since the president's thoughts and ideas about education were part of his wider thinking about shaping the culture of the new Argentina, this examination of his educational theories will also provide an overview of various aspects of that culture. The great importance that the president ascribed to the education system was responsible, initially, for a remarkable improvement in school buildings and classroom conditions, at least at the elementary- and secondary-school levels. The education ministry implemented a series of reforms, and the government began building and expanding schools on a scale and at a pace unprecedented in Argentina. Pern's speech at the beginning of the 1953 school year indicated that the justicialist doctrine was already well developed and had been introduced into the education system as political indoctrination material.
