Educação do corpo infantil no sul de Mato Grosso na Era Vargas (1930-1940)

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the representations on the education of children in the Revista Mensal Ilustrada Folha da Serra (RFS), printed non-pedagogical published in Campo Grande, southern Mato Grosso, between 1931 and 1940. The research deals with education of the children's body in the private space (mother, family institution) and public (teachers, school institution). As a methodological method of analysis, the concept of strategy (CERTEAU, 1990) and of Chartier (1990) based on the New Cultural History were adopted. From this perspective, we question the presence and content of discourses around the education of the infantile body in the pages of the Revista, in the region south of Mato Grosso, in the decade of 1930 and its relation with the nationalist governmental discourse, with the intention of to improve the physical indices of the new generation of Brazilians, as part of the scientific thinking of the time, which encouraged the education of white, chubby and healthy children, living up to the hygienist movement of the period. In this sense, the discipline of physical education is instituted as a new discipline field, focused on the education of the body. In general terms, the analysis of the data presented shows the great effort of the Journal to contribute to the process of transforming a small, predominantly rural city into a modern capital, even if it silences a scenario where the high infant mortality rate, diseases and epidemics ravaged the country, it is still necessary to consider the intention to reverse the situation. Regarding the responsibility of the education of the infant body, it was found that it falls on the mothers, especially in conjunction with the State and schools, under the centrality of the authority and the speeches divulged and imposed by Getúlio Vargas.