UM “TEMPLO DA CIVILIZAÇÃO” NO “CORAÇÃO DO PARANÁ”: O GRUPO ESCOLAR VISCONDE DE GUARAPUAVA (1912-1942) VISTO A PARTIR DA IMPRENSA

Abstract

This thesis is a bibliographical and documentary analysis of the history of the School Group Visconde de Guarapuava between 1912 and 1942. Starting from the wider to the more specific contextualization, we return to the educational literature which studies the advent of School Groups in Brazil. We study what were those institutions and how they have been consolidated as the main tool of State Public Education in urban landscapes. Using the dialectical method of analysis, we researched what represented the emergence of these institutions in Paraná in the early twentieth century within the whole Republican symbology in which they were inserted in the educational context. In Guarapuava, in the face of slow social and economic development of the city in the nineteenth century, public education was characterized by the lack of State and social stimulus. This precariousness was thought to be remedied by the government from the School Group Foundation in 1912 with the meeting of 5 isolated schools in the urban area of Guarapuava. After being named as School Group Visconde de Guarapuava only in 1920, the institution, in theory, became recognized as "civilization temple" in the "heart of Parana", unifying institutions of primary in the education of children, the “guarapuavaninhos”. The Republicanism, Moral and Civic Education, respect, discipline, patriotism, among others, were guiding values proclaimed in the School Group through pedagogical practices of "indoctrination", highly praised and publicized by local newspapers. However, in practice we saw that the administration of the School Group, sometimes, undersaw the pedagogical organization and maintenance of the building, which became one of the main reasons for criticisms levelled from experts and authorities.