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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nNational Historic Monument<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This academic monument that seems more like a\nworld-class university institution in the best Harvard style, is a must-see for\nanyone who is thinking of taking a tourist tour of the city of Santiago, to witness an architectural\nbeauty that impacts starting at the entrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1984, this monumental structure with 82 years of history\nhas an architecture that represents the history and pride of the citizens, as\nshown by its two majestic lions that guard the impressive entrance surrounded\nby baroque-style sculptures and complemented by columns that serve as a prelude\nto a large hall, decorated with symbolic figures in relief. Each Visitor is\nsurprised by its size and beauty, especially in relation to the surrounding\nlandscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The school, built by the engineer Luis Caselli, and decorated by the\nSpanish sculptor Rodriguez Del Villar, was the first complete secondary\neducational center, especially intended for the training of elementary school\nteachers in the interior of the Republic. In it, thousands of teachers and\nprofessionals who chose to pursue careers such as medicine and law had been\ntrained, who have also contributed to the development of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A President’s Dream Materialized<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The school was the flagship project of the ninth\npresident of the Republic, Juan Demostenes Arosemena. At that time, the country\nhad only 650,000 inhabitants and an illiteracy rate of 35%, mainly in the\ninterior, requiring thousands of new teachers to spread knowledge and culture\nall over Panama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At a time when thousands of peasants emigrated to the\ncapital in search of better life and opportunities, the government made a\nmillionaire investment that would help break the economic, cultural and\npolitical hegemony of Panama City. Many towns in the interior yearned to be the\nheadquarters of this investment, but the president opted for Santiago, a city\nfounded in colonial times and until a few years before the inauguration of the\nacademic campus it was at eight hours on horseback from Aguadulce City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Santiago City, which had 4,500 inhabitants in 1939,\nhad enjoyed great splendor during the colonial era, but after the emancipation\nof Colombia, it had made very little progress. The pavement of many of its\nstreets were still the same as then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The province of Veraguas itself was one of the most\nbackward and unequal in the country. If the national illiteracy average was\n35%, that of Veraguas reached almost 70%, although among the youngest, the\npercentage was 54%. Most of the inhabitants of the province worked in\nagriculture, mainly as peasants for the large landowners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A New Era in Education<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Normal of Santiago School began to function\nwith almost a thousand students, 650 girls and 210 boys, most of them interns.\nMany were awarded scholarships by the government and, together, they\nrepresented the best of the Panamanian student body in the interior of the\nRepublic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The teachers had been carefully chosen and would give classes in culture, hygiene, manners, civility and teaching to the teachers who would be trained at the center, who would become ambassadors of a new era for the country, educating a new generation of Panamanians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The great day of its inauguration was June 5, 1938. That Sunday, after a year and a half of construction, and amid great expectations, the entire town was stationed along the main street of Santiago City to watch the young students who were wearing their navy blue hat, a skirt of the same color and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2870"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2870"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3626,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2870\/revisions\/3626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/esp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/DSC_0553_opt.jpg\")
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