Catalan people
[[File:Francisco Ferrer Guardia.jpg|150px|left|thumb|[[Francisco Ferrer i Guàrdia]], [[Catalan people|Catalan]] anarchist pedagogue]]In 1901, [[Catalan people|Catalan]] anarchist and [[Freethought|free-thinker]] [[Francisco Ferrer]] established "modern" or [[Progressive education|progressive schools]] in [[Barcelona]] in defiance of an educational system controlled by the Catholic Church. The schools' stated goal was to "[[educate the working class]] in a rational, secular and non-coercive setting". Fiercely anti-clerical, Ferrer believed in "freedom in education", education free from the authority of church and state. [[Murray Bookchin]] wrote: "This period [1890s] was the heyday of libertarian schools and pedagogical projects in all areas of the country where Anarchists exercised some degree of influence. Perhaps the best-known effort in this field was Francisco Ferrer's Modern School (Escuela Moderna), a project which exercised a considerable influence on Catalan education and on experimental techniques of teaching generally." La Escuela Moderna, and Ferrer's ideas generally, formed the inspiration for a series of "[[Modern School (United States)|Modern Schools]]" in the [[United States]], [[Cuba]], [[South America]] and [[London]]. The first of these was started in [[New York City]] in 1911. It also inspired the Italian newspaper "[[Università popolare (Italian newspaper)|Università popolare]]", founded in 1901.