“Learning Through Play: The Teaching Materials of Lluís Folch i Torres” is a travelling exhibition that will be open to the public from 24 to 26 March 2026 and has been possible thanks to an agreement between UIC Barcelona and the Folch i Torres Foundation. This academic initiative has been spearheaded by Faculty of Education Sciences lecturers Asunción Verdera and Carla Vidal and promotes knowledge transfer and research activities aimed at examining the impact of the family’s work.
The exhibition showcases reading tools ranging from the earliest letters (graphemes and sounds) to words and full texts. It also features mathematics resources such as abacuses, counting rods and hands-on exercises involving manipulation and sensory exploration. One of the elements that most caught the attention of the Faculty’s students was a set of boxes used to classify objects of different colours, shapes and sizes. “These teaching materials are clearly oriented towards the child and their learning process, especially children in vulnerable situations,” explains Dr Asunción Verdera. His educational approach “anticipates current principles such as support for diversity, competency-based learning and the use of meaningful educational resources,” she notes, despite dating back more than one hundred years.
Montserrat Comelles, curator: “We have rediscovered him”
Thanks to the partnership with the Folch i Torres Foundation and the efforts of curator Montserrat Comelles, an original selection of Folch i Torres’ educational games has been recovered by UIC Barcelona. “We have gathered materials preserved by the family alongside some held by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and by bringing them together, the intention is evident. We have rediscovered him”, explains curator Montserrat Comelles. “Upon arrival, we saw that a group of students had created a poster of Lluís Folch i Torres as one of Catalonia’s key educators, and that is very important to us,” she stressed.
Lluís Folch i Torres, Catalonia’s first educational psychologist
Dr Carmina Folch, great-granddaughter of the educational psychologist Lluís Folch i Torres, inaugurated the exhibition as part of the subject Contemporary Theories and Institutions in Education, taught by Dr Jaume Camps. Carmina Folch highlighted the educator’s concern for underprivileged families. Her great-grandfather studied at a religious school in the Sant Antoni district of Barcelona. At that time, wealthy families attended school in the morning, while those without means went in the afternoon. Born into a well-off family, he attended school in the morning. However, following the death of his father, he began interacting with children in vulnerable situations. “This contact with underprivileged children likely sparked his interest in these families,” she explained.
Folch i Torres’ great-granddaughter recalled his initial years as a journalist in the early 20th century and recounted an anecdote which cemented his commitment to children in need. “He was assigned to cover an event at the Liceo Opera House, yet instead of writing about the opera, he reported on the children waiting at the entrance to open taxi doors in exchange for a few coins.” Word of the story spread quickly, revealing his interest in underprivileged children.
Torremar School in Vilassar de Dalt
After combining work as a journalist with various positions in child protection centres in the mid-20th century, Lluís Folch i Torres decided to spend three years visiting special education institutions abroad, during which time he met Maria Montessori and Ovide Decroly. Inspired by this European experience, he decided to implement his methodology and open his own school in Catalonia: the Torremar School in Vilassar de Dalt.
Today a residence, the school was originally a pioneering institution where girls and boys with disabilities, special needs and learning difficulties could live and learn amid nature, with educational methodologies based on learning through play. This collection, recovered by the Faculty of Education Sciences at UIC Barcelona, showcases the educator’s dedication to children with special needs and the lasting significance of the “learning through play” approach.
