Ellen Key was “in the best meaning of the word a European intellectual, and one of the last people in Swedish cultural history for whom the whole European tradition of ideas was real” (Ambjörnsson, 2014: 134). Her ideas travel around Europe; they were discussed by groups of intellectuals, and it could be said that they connected communities which had different education, childhood, motherhood or women cultures. In this sense, Key deserves a place in a conference about (Re)connecting Communities. 

Nowadays, who has read The Century of the Child? Who knows who was Ellen Key? Apart from the name of the book, the name of its author and the date when it was published, we are convinced that Ellen Key is not really known (Fuchs, Roldán, 2019; Hällström, Jansson & Pironi, 2016; Grandi, 2016). In Spain this can be partly explained by the fact that this book was published in Spanish only in 1906, very shortly after its appearance (today accessible online). Although Key's influence in some countries (Germany, Italy, or Japan, for example) has already been studied (Hällström, Jansson & Pironi, 2016); Kinnunen, 2011; Åkerström, 2019; Lowi, 2004), the studies about her reception and influence in Spain are scarce and rather focused on feminism and motherhood than on education (Lindholm, 2013 and 2019).

This paper aims to revisit texts published in Spain by Ellen Key and about Ellen Key offering a clue as to the reception of her theories about education. This paper is divided into two parts; in the first part, we review the translations of Key main works into Spanish (her essay collection Barnets Århundrade, 1900 published as The Century of the Child, and Love and Marriage since both works are necessary to increase their understanding).

The second part is on relation to the reviews that these books, or Ellen Key, received during the first decades of the 20^th century. There were two reviews of The Century of the Child in the magazine La lectura, in 1903 and 1906, which had already been published in German and French. She was presented as a utopic thinker; her writings were supposed to be addressed to future generations as she asked educators to transform the child into a guide, and the society, to respect children rights. Educators should establish a relationship of true trust, to develop an ideal model of education using the contact with nature together and a good library adapted to the age and development of the children, to create a beautiful world and make it possible to inhabit it. The goal would be to promote the free development of their skills intervening the bare minimum.

It was Leopoldo Alas Argüelles, son of «Clarín» the author of La Regenta, who reviewed the book just after having been translated into Spanish. In addition to her presence on education journals, we have revised her presence in the press, monographs and magazines. Francisco Ferrer y Guardia, the anarchist founder of a libertarian school called Escuela Moderna, wrote a letter to Key explaining her his project of a Normal School in Barcelona where libertarian teachers would be trained. He asked her support to this project and to write an article to be publisher in L’ École nouvelle, extension of La Escuela Moderna of Barcelona. In July 1908, the article "Mother and son" signed by Ellen Key was published in Boletín de la Escuela Moderna. These findings are indications of the influence of Key’s theories. This work was supported by the University of Málaga [Project “Influencia de la Idea sobre el Estado en la Configuración del Moderno Sistema Educativo”, 2020-2021]

Methodologically we start from a bibliographical revision (journals, books and newspapers). We analyse the concepts of childhood, education and motherhood throughout The Century of the Child. We have put them into context developing a relational approach to contextualize it within the pedagogical renewal movements of the New School and the attention devoted to children from different fields (pedagogy, phycology, medicine, law, sociology…) (Fernández Soria & Mayordomo, 1984). The principles behind compulsory schooling legislation (and against children labor) spread to every industrial community the western societies when so-called progressive reformers took the control meanwhile sanitary police measures allowed lower infant mortality rates. The development of medicine in the area of paediatrics and its application in childcare had a strong influence on the methods, procedures and training contents of the educational institutions. It is necessary to read The Century of the Child from this perspective as key concepts in Key’s work, such as feminism or childhood or motherhood, have enormously changed over time. The Spanish editions of The Century of the Child and a systematic search of the reviews that it received are the core of this paper. To find out if Key published in Spanish journals has been another key aspect although there are less findings than we expected. This study has to be later put in connection with the spread of Key’s theories over Europe.

The reception and dissemination Key’s theories remain a pending issue in Spain. Ellen Key was already both a controversial and a contradictory thinker in her time, and she still is. Her writings are a paradigmatic example of intertwining between education and sociocultural determinants. Reading The Century of the Child today strikes one as sometimes it sounds common sense, even conservative, while in others it sounds progressive, even revolutionary (Viñao, 1990). Our main conclusion is that Ellen Key’s contributions were at one of the highest points of the positive narrative about childhood. Most of the reviews on Key in Spain were translations, that is, they were not made by Spanish journalists or writers. Most of her ideas about childhood and education, although scarcely originals, have contributed to developing the current concepts of feminism, motherhood and fatherhood; nevertheless, these concepts are multifaceted and rapidly changing. Ellen Key tried to “save” 20th century children (Dekker, 2000; Meda, Gecchele, Polenghi & Dal Toso, 2017; Sealander, 2003) but some crucial questions remind open for the historians of education: Has the 20th century been the century of the child? Has Key contributed to it? What has been her real influence on the pedagogical reflection? Why The Century of the Child has not been republished in Spanish? As the tittle of this paper already suggested, her main works were translated into Spanish just after their publication in Swedish (actually The Century of the Child was translated into Spanish in 1906, before than into English, 1910, or French, and a new edition is expected in 2021 that hopefully will open the debate around it). Although this books has not been republished, it is usually cited in every historical publication about History of Childhood.

Åkerström, U. (2019). Collective Motherliness in Italy. Reception and Reformulation of Ellen Key’s Feminist Ideas in Sibilla Aleramo and Ada Negri (1905-1921). Bergen Language and Linguistics Studies, 10 (1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.15845/bells.v10i1.1389. Ambjörnsson, R. (2014). Ellen Key and the concept of Bildung. Confero, 2(1), 133-161, http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/confero.2001-4562.140515 Dekker, J. J.H. (2000). The Century of the Child revisited. The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 8(2), 133-150. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718180020494550 Fernández Soria, J.M., Mayordomo, A. (1984). Perspectiva histórica de la protección a la infancia en España. Historia de la Educación, 3,191-214. Retrieved from http://revistas.usal.es/index.php/0212-0267/article/view/6599 Fuchs, E., Roldán, E. (Eds.) (2019). The Transnational in the History of Education: Concepts and Perspectives. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17168-1 Grandi, W. (2016). Children’s stories in the educational theories of Ellen Key, Rudolf Steiner and Maria Montessori. Ricerche di Pedagogia e Didattica – Journal of Theories and Research in Education, 11(2), 47-66. Retrieved from https://rpd.unibo.it/article/view/6374/6152 Hällström, C., Jansson, H. and Pironi, T. (Eds.) (2016). Ellen Key and the Birth of a new Children’s Culture. Ricerche di Pedagogia e Didattica – Journal of Theories and Research in Education, 11(2), 1-25. Retrieved from https://rpd.unibo.it/article/view/6373 Key, E. (1900). Barnets Århundrade, I-II. Albert Bonniers Förlag. Key, E. (1909). The Century of the Child. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Key, E. (1906). El Siglo de los niños. Imp. de Henrich y Cª (2 vols.) Kinnunen, T. (2011). Debating Individualism and Altruism: Gertrud Bäumer, Ellen Key and the ethical foundations of modern life. Women's History Review, 20(4), 497-507, DOI:10.1080/09612025.2011.599603 Lengborn, T. (1993). Ellen Key (1894-1926). Perspectivas: revista trimestral de educación comparada, XXIII (3-4), 873-886. Lindholm, E. (2013). Amor materno y cuerpo social: los ecos de Ellen Key en "Quiero vivir mi vida" de Carmen de Burgos. Letras Femeninas, 39 (2), 27-44. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44733647 Lindholm, E. (2019). Collective motherliness in Spain: Reception and Reformulation of Ellen Key’s ideas (1907–1936). Bergen Language and Linguistics Studies, 10(1), 1-11 DOI: 10.15845/bells.v10i1.1388 Lowy, D. (2004. Love and Marriage: Ellen Key and Hiratsuka Raichō Explore Alternatives. Women's Studies, 33(4), 361-380, doi: 10.1080/00497870490444901 Meda, J., Gecchele, M., Polenghi, S. & Dal Toso, P. (Eds.), (2017). Il Novecento: il secolo del bambino? Edizioni Junior. Sealander, J. (2003). The Failed Century of the Child: Governing America's Young in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge University Press. Viñao, A. (1990). Innovación pedagógica y racionalidad científica. Akal.