Faded Memories Carved in Stone: Teachers’ Gravestones as a Form of Collective Memory of Education in Slovenia in the 19th and Early 20th Century

Abstract

Through field work, the author of this article analyses the erection of gravestones for teachers in provinces populated by Slovenian in the south Habsburg Empire (before 1918) and after WW1 in nordwest part of Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The article presents the inscriptions on teachers’ gravestones, what a financial achievement this was for the colleagues of the deceased, their pupils and school supporters and finds that this contributed to the creation of a locally limited public memory of people connected with school. The gravestones of pupils, some of whom died very young, in their own special way convey a memory of schools. Often teachers were not born in the place where they worked and so regional teachers’ associations, active from the 1860s onwards, collected money among teachers and school supporters in memory of the deceased association members, which was then used for memorials. In the case of some teachers, their gravestone in a cemetery is the only firm memory of them in the place where they worked. In spite of the significant financial sacrifice by the modestly paid teachers for the erection of these gravestones, after many decades many are no longer there. It seems that a memorial notice on fragile paper, particularly when printed, is a much more enduring memory than words carved in stone.