Gloria Giner de los Ríos García facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gloria Giner de los Ríos García
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| Born | 28 March 1886 Madrid, Spain
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| Died | 6 February 1970 (aged 83) Madrid, Spain
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| Resting place | Civil Cemetery of Madrid |
| Occupation | Teacher |
| Spouse(s) | Fernando de los Ríos |
| Children | Laura de los Ríos Giner |
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Gloria Giner de los Ríos García (born March 28, 1886 – died February 6, 1970) was an important Spanish teacher. She taught at special schools for teachers, like the Escuela Normal Superior de Maestras and the Institución Libre de Enseñanza.
Gloria wrote new and exciting books for teaching history and geography. She worked with another teacher, Leonor Serrano Pablo, to create a teaching method called "enthusiastic observation." They also wanted to make sure that women were included in the study of geography, as it often only focused on men.
During the time of Francoist Spain, Gloria had to live away from her home country. She was part of a group of smart people who continued their work in education and culture while in exile. Her family was also very close to the famous poet Federico García Lorca and his family.
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Biography of Gloria Giner
Gloria Giner de los Ríos García was born in Madrid, Spain, on March 28, 1886. Her parents were Laura García Hoppe and Hermenegildo Giner de los Ríos.
She grew up in different Spanish cities like Madrid, Alicante, and Barcelona. This was because her father, a philosophy professor, moved for his job. After finishing high school in 1906, she became a teacher in 1908. She also took extra classes in art, pedagogy (the study of teaching), and philosophy. In 1909, she moved up to a higher teaching school called the Escuela de Estudios Superiores de Magisterio.
Marriage and Family Life
On July 1, 1912, Gloria married Fernando de los Ríos. He became a law professor at the University of Granada. Gloria and Fernando moved to Granada, where Gloria taught at the Normal School. At first, she taught because her husband worked there, but later she got her own teaching position.
A year later, their daughter, Laura de los Ríos Giner, was born. In Granada, the Ríos Giner family became good friends with the García Lorca family. They also knew the musician Manuel de Falla and Berta Wilhelmi. Berta Wilhelmi had connections to the Institución Libre de Enseñanza, a special school.
Gloria worked with Berta to educate her daughter Laura and other children, including Isabel García Lorca. They wanted to give them a different kind of education than what was common in Granada's private schools.
Friendship with the García Lorca Family
The famous poet Federico García Lorca was a close friend of Gloria and Fernando's family. He even dedicated a poem to them! Federico was the one who introduced their daughters, Laura de los Ríos and Isabel García Lorca.
Laura and Isabel became very close friends and stayed friends for a long time. Later, Laura married Federico's younger brother, Francisco. This made them sisters-in-law!
Isabel García Lorca once said about Gloria:
Gloria Giner was an amazing person. I think all of them had a similar strong moral character. They expected a lot from themselves and others.
Laura also shared memories of her mother's life in Granada:
My mother went to her classes every day. In the afternoons, she prepared her lessons and helped my father. She translated from German, which my father taught her. She also translated from French, Greek, and Latin. My parents were a very loving and intellectual couple.
Gloria's Professional Career
In 1931, Gloria's husband, Fernando de los Ríos, became a government minister. He was first the Minister of Justice and then the Minister of Public Instruction. Gloria told her daughter, "I am not going to give up my career just to be a minister's wife."
Even so, she sometimes attended official events and traveled with her husband. In 1932, she took a break from teaching at the Normal School but continued at the Institución Libre de Enseñanza. In 1933, after her husband left his government job, she went back to teaching. She took a position in Zamora.
For three school years, she lived alone in a hotel room in Zamora for three days a week. She would return to Madrid for the rest of the week. In Zamora, like in Granada, some people in society avoided her. This was because her husband was a socialist, and she did not attend religious services.
Life in Exile
In late September 1936, Fernando de los Ríos was appointed Spain's ambassador to the United States. He held this job until March 1939. Gloria moved to Washington, D.C., with her daughter, her mother, and a nephew. Later, Fernando's mother also joined them.
In Washington, Gloria was invited to several meetings that Eleanor Roosevelt held at the White House. During the Spanish Civil War, Fernando de los Ríos lost his teaching job at the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1939, the Franco government officially fired him from his position.
Fernando de los Ríos then taught at The New School for Social Research in New York. This school was created to welcome smart people from Europe who had to leave their countries for political reasons. Gloria became a professor at Columbia University.
The Ríos-Giner family lived in the United States as exiles. The US had strict rules for people wanting to enter the country. However, university students and artists could get in more easily if a US citizen or a university supported them. Gloria was one of many smart people who taught at American universities during this time.
In 1942, Gloria's daughter Laura married Francisco García Lorca. He was the younger brother of the poet Federico. They got married at Middlebury College, where both were teaching Spanish. Laura and Francisco had three daughters, and the whole family lived together in an apartment in New York.
Besides preparing her classes and writing, Gloria also took care of her three granddaughters. She took them for walks and rode the bus and subway with them in New York.
In 1949, Fernando de los Ríos passed away. Many important people from politics and culture attended his funeral. Gloria Giner returned to Spain with her daughter's family in 1965.
Return to Spain
Gloria Giner died in Madrid on February 6, 1970. She was buried in the Civil Cemetery of Madrid. Her husband's remains were later moved there on June 28, 1980, so they could rest together.
Teaching Methods and Ideas
Gloria Giner and her good friend Leonor Serrano Pablo worked together on teaching geography. They wanted to make it more interesting for students. Gloria believed that plastic arts (like drawing or sculpting) were important for teaching history to young children. Her 1935 book, Cien lecturas históricas (One Hundred Historical Readings), became a very important book for teachers who wanted to try new things.
They were inspired by other educators like Rafael Altamira and Maria Montessori. They created teaching methods that Leonor Serrano called "enthusiastic observation." This meant teaching geography by talking with students and helping them feel a connection to their surroundings.
A key part of "enthusiastic observation" was emotions. They didn't want students to just memorize facts. Gloria said it helped "educate the soul and strengthen the spirit."
Serrano and Giner also wanted to include women more in geography studies. At the time, many studies focused only on men. They believed that if geography included women's experiences, it would lead to a more "creative, loving, and peaceful humanity." A professor named Ana I. Simón Alegre thinks this idea was an early form of environmental education or ecofeminism.
Gloria's last book, Por tierras de España (1962), also used new teaching methods that focused on listening and speaking.
Works by Gloria Giner
- Historia de la pedagogía (1910)
- Weimer, Hermann 1872–1942 (translation)
- Geografía Primer grado. Aspectos de la naturaleza y vida del hombre en la tierra (1919)
- Geografía: Primer grado (1919), with Federico Ribas (1890–1952)
- Geografía general. El cielo, la Tierra y el hombre (1935)
- Cien lecturas históricas (1935)
- Lecturas geográficas. Espectáculos de la naturaleza, paisajes, ciudades y hombres (1936)
- Romances de los ríos de España (1943)
- Manual de historia de la civilización española (1951)
- Cumbres de la civilización española: Interpretación del espíritu español individualizado en diecinueve figuras representativas (1955)
- El paisaje de Hispanoamérica a través de su literatura: (antología) (1958)
- Introducción a la historia de la civilización española (1959)
- Por tierras de España (1962), with Luke Nolfi, ISBN: 9780030800238
See also
In Spanish: Gloria Giner de los Ríos García para niños
