THE FOUNDER

Arsenio Inclán Alonso (Palencia, 1936-Madrid, 2020) was a visionary of education, a man dedicated for more than half a century to educate thousands of children with one premise: the school should not be a place of oppression, but the place where students would be happy, while acquiring the cultural and humanistic heritage that would prepare them to be adults.

Arsenio, born during the years of the Civil War, believed, even before the death of the dictator Franco, that the path marked by the Institución Libre de Enseñanza was the one to follow in order to provide our country with educational centers that would move away from the church’s monopoly on education. With these principles he founded Liceo Europeo, which has recently completed thirty-eight years of existence, thanks to the unconditional support of his wife Nunchi Campo.

Surrounded by a loyal team – his inseparable Lola, Lourdes and Mari Paz – Arsenio embarked on a fabulous adventure. His school moved away from textbooks and traditional teaching. Active teaching was introduced in its classrooms and the ideology of Liceo Europeo established the Charter of the Declaration of Human Rights as a fundamental text: respect and plurality above dogmatism of any kind. In a Spain where the majority of schools were still male or female, Liceo Europeo believed in gender equality from the very beginning. When most of the schools still taught the list of the Gothic kings and the periodic table, Arsenio Inclán implemented in his school a vegetable garden so that students could learn the rules of nature in situ and made sure that students mastered several languages from an early age: today at Liceo Europeo you can hear English, French, German, Italian and Mandarin Chinese spoken.

Arsenio was convinced that each student was unique and convinced his teachers of the same to get the best out of each child. His vocation for universalism turned the Liceo Europeo into a pioneer of international exchanges and universities from all over the world have had students from this school in their classrooms.

Gifted with a fine sense of humor, he liked to surround himself with people of intellectual stature. A personal friend of Josefina and Susana Aldecoa, he established alliances with Colegio Estilo that still last. In Arsenio’s classrooms there was no elitism other than academic excellence, and children from families of any ideology had a place in them.