Pisa As a Political Instrument

Abstract

In the early nineties Ivan Illich reminded us that it was time to celebrate the 500 year anniversary of the creation of the educational sector and hence schooling as a system of ideas for power and control over knowledge (Illich, 1981). What he referred to was the first idea to establish a state control system over written texts and thereby mastering the degree of literacy. This distinguish idea was presented at the Spanish court the 18 th of August 1492. The month of August that very year is often remembered as the time when Queen Isabel of Spain gave up after all the nagging of Columbus and allowed him to sail to India. But Illich tells another story. The 18 th of August the Queen was courted by what we today would call a linguist. His name was Elio Antonio de Nebrija. De Nebrija had published a grammar for the Castilian language. At that time in Europe a grammar was a regulation of how a language should be used, not a description of how a language was used. De Nebrija had discovered that the spoken Latin had changed to some gibberish and no longer a well formed and common language. In twenty year he had tried to reconstruct the classical Latin in Spain but all in vain. Instead, it struck him, that it would be better to write a grammar for the popular language; for Castilian. It was this grammar he presented his queen. But, his idea was more sophisticated than just a set of language rules. The very rational behind introducing a grammar was a new danger. A risk that was discernable as a consequence of the new technical innovation, namely the printing techniques. Due to this invention people learnt to read and that in its turn resulted in all kind of leaflets and pamphlets that were spread around. And many of these texts presented ideas that were threatening to the power and the queen. Ideas were published that questioned what should not be questioned. And furthermore, people were reading in silence. This was also a new invention. Earlier, when there were few texts to read, reading were done loudly (cf. Saenger, 1997). Silent reading is of course more difficult to control and interfere with. The reading had to be controlled, was deNebrijàs clear message. The Queen and thus the state should organise education and teach people to read. If such an education was to be effective and the outcome to be controlled, it was necessary to construct an artificial language. This artificial language had to be constructed on central decided rules and organised on levels following the hierarchical structure of the state apparatus. In that way the reading could be controlled and the empire saved from the contamination of subversive ideas.