Pau Delclòs collection

Biography of the teacher Pau Delclòs i Dols

Pau Delclòs i Dols was born in Maçanet de Cabrenys (Alt Empordà) on 25 February 1865. He studied teaching at the Girona Normal School and subsequently at the Barcelona Normal School, where he obtained his qualification as a primary school teacher in 1887.

He taught in various Catalan towns until, in 1891, he was awarded a teaching post at the Public Elementary School for Boys in Tarragona, located in Plaça Prim, which he directed from 1911 until 1935, the year of his retirement. He died in Tarragona on 9 January 1942.

He was the author of poems, articles and papers on educational theory, among which stand out Consideraciones sobre la Escritura (Tarragona: Viuda e Hijos de Tort, 1895) and La Geografía por el Dibujo (Tarragona: Editor Pijoan, 1900).

His professional career was marked by the academic and pedagogical renewal movement, which conceived the classroom as a laboratory for teaching and advocated for the holistic development of the pupil and their abilities through the transmission of knowledge and norms. At a time when public education suffered from serious shortcomings, Pau Delclòs strove to provide a quality education, animated by the principles of Catalanism and equality of access to culture.

[Information taken from: BAIXERAS I SASTRE, Enric. "El mestre Pau Delclòs". A: Recull Pau Delclòs i Dols. Edited by SOLER ÀLVAREZ, Eliseu-A. Tarragona: Estació de Recerca Bibliogràfica i Documental Margalló del Balcó, 1998; and MESTRAS I MARTÍ, Lluís M. "Pau Delclòs i Dols (1865-1942)". El Punt Diari [Girona] (9 April 1981)].