Formas de ver e viver a infância nas escolas públicas mineiras (fins do século XIX - início do século XX): práticas, espaços e tempos

Abstract

The general objective of this dissertation is to investigate the view of childhood during children education in elementary public schools in Minas Gerais State in the last two decades of the 19th century and the early 1900's. This dissertation is organized in three chapters: the view of childhood as an object of historical investigation, the analysis of childhood in school the spaces/times, and the assessment of the educational practices. The first chapter presents an overview of the development of the historiography of childhood in an attempt to vertically explore the concepts and notions of childhood and child. The second chapter demonstrates the establishment of school as a privileged place of education during childhood, particularly the analysis of the structuring of public education in Minas Gerais in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. The third chapter aimed to discuss the constitution of childhood through the investigation of educational practices. We concluded that childhood, the time investigated here, was lived in a precarious way, in inadequate spaces. Childhood was characterized by lack - children lacked appropriate spaces, school materials, tableware, furniture, trained teachers. Even though the discourse highlighted the need of proper care of children and the elites in power presented themselves as childrens protectors, they forsaken in a condition of announced adult, a child that should study to be useful to itself and the society.