Memória Social e Memória Educacional: O caso do grupo de idosos São José do bairro Seminário, Crato-CE.

Abstract

Analysing the Educational and Social Memory of participants from the: Grupo de Idosos São José do Seminário Crato-CE is the main objective of this paper. For this we used historical concepts of Memory and Oral History, trusting in the importance of the Elderly’s Memory for the construction of the historical knowledge. We performed a qualitative research and through interviews we selected four life histories of participants from the mentioned group, in order that, through their histories, we could understand their lives and investigate why nowadays they are reunited in socializing groups which seek improvements in the life quality of elders/poor. The elderly appear with fictitious names, having their own characteristics and similar to the others. They were Odair, a man who admires his friendships and is very popular in the group; Antonia, who is still in love with her husband; Ângela, who mourns her mother’s death; and Fausto, a man who has not forgotten his suffering since his childhood. We noticed in their memories that they had suffered a lot and they had not had much access education institutions. They had been workers since their childhood and nowadays they are illiterate or know how to read just a little. They had received their training for working through social relations such as familiar and/or inside their own spaces where they worked. Nowadays these elders receive benefits or retirement grants from the Government which offer them a feeling of joy, because for the majority, this is the only phase of their lives which a monthly fixed incoming becomes part of their realities. Finally, they believe that frequently participating in meetings of elderly groups is one of the facts that brought them a real improvement in their life quality.