Los límites de la obligatoriedad escolar en Buenos Aires, 1884-1915

In this article we intend to enlarged the explanatory frame concerning the reasons for the gap between the ideal conception and the effective establishment of the public instruction system in Argentina in the period that ranges from the signing of Act 1420 to the beginning of the 1910's. It is important to point out that such distance did not depend exclusively on the material constraints faced by school authorities or on the decisions of parents concerning their children attendance of school, but these very constraints were rooted in a more profound element, at the level of representations, w...