O Regulamento nº 7 e o método francês de ginástica: um projeto ce educação física nacional (1928-1934)

Abstract

The objective was to analyze the Regulamento Geral de Educação Física - Regulamento nº 7 (RGEF-R7) in the search for evidence to support the claim that it was designed for the training of the soldier for war. We use content analysis to encode the data, comparing it with other military manuals. The RGEF-R7 was the translation of the French Gymnastic Method, carried out by members of the Military Physical Education Center under the supervision of the French Military Mission between 1928 and 1934, the year in which it was published. It was introduced in Brazil by the French Military Mission, contracted to "modernize" the national army. In comparison to the french original, RGEF-R7 can not be treated as a "full translation", an expression so widespread in the field, because there are some differences in content, some subtle, and others evident, such as the low-floor gymnasium model adopted. A systematization of utilitarian contents, basically arranged in seven families: marching, climbing, jumping, lifting and transporting, running, launching, attacking and defending, and even being not hegemonic in RGEF-R7, there are some elements similar to the contents of military training, such as transportation of wounded, techniques of progression in combat, transport of sandbags, beams, tree trunks, transposition of walls, palanques and fences, as well as games with militarized themes such as firing and grenade launching , besides exercises of order and military evolutions. A relationship between the French Method and the National Physical Education Draft was identified, in an attempt to expand the French Method to the whole country, and tensions between the Brazilian Education Association and this Preliminary Draft. The RGEF-R7 was a teacher's didactic manual, mainly aimed at teaching students aged four to 18 years, and was used in teacher training. In spite of some similarities with military training, in Brazil its teaching had no trace of militarization, adopting a character of political and social intervention in the context of the Vargas national development project in the 1930s and 1940s, between the military institution and the central power, the French Method was officially prescribed for school education, but it was not hegemonic, competing with other methods, mainly with the phenomenon of sports. It was proposed for pedagogical and political intervention in the search for a desired model of citizen, strong, resistant, healthy, disciplined and obedient.