Princípios higienistas e a escola para A República: um estudo sobre os grupos escolares do Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

The schools known as “grupos escolares”, in Rio Grande do Norte (RN) State – Brazil in the early of twentieth century, came up with norms, laws, rules and hygienist precepts that should be followed according to the normative texts from the reform of public teaching. In this paper, we aim to analyze the hygienist principles from the daily lives in “grupos escolares” of Rio Grande do Norte (RN) State – Brazil, paying attention especially to the building of these institutions and the treatment of the bodies involved in this kind of school. Methodologically, we have done a bibliographic and documentary research focusing primarily on the newspaper “The Republic”, in the period from 1910 to 1930. The hygienist practices aimed to avoid and prevent diseases in the population, and form habits considered hygienic among the children, which were in primary education developed in the “grupos escolares”.