This article studies debates about anarchist education in Spain, and other countries, where debates redounded, during the last third of 19th century. A bibliographic review, reading of some classic texts on socialist and anarchist thought, and analysis of archive sources, allow this investigation to reconstruct anarchist pedagogical knowledge, such as it was composed with discourses and practices of anarchist theorist and militants. Finally, this paper shows the formulation of a definition of anarchist education before Francisco Ferrer’s rationalist school.