FAMILIA Y ESCUELA: UNA HISTORIA SOCIAL DEL PROCESO DE ESCOLARIZACIóN NACIONAL. CHILE, 1860-1930

this article analyzes the connection between family and school within the national schooling process, exploring the significance that the schooling process had for lower income households. the article proposes that the significance depended to a large extent upon the reception that the public school had in the community. families are studied as the key actors to the understanding of the social implications on the formation of an educational system starting from the law for primary education that was enacted in 1860 and the extension of schooling by making primary education mandatory in 1920. educational policies blamed the incapacity of poor homes to educate and financially support their children naming them as the main obstacle to the expansion of education. from the point of view of the families the problem was the opposite. initially, school played a secondary role in the family, essentially defined by the necessity that all of its members cooperate for the survival of the group. later the public school system would need to modify the educational provision, focusing on the social assistance of students and their families by offering health care and food, inaugurating the welfare state in chile.