L'enseignement secondaire dans le cadre du "Pombalisme"

• Autores: Rogério Fernandes, Maria Cristina Menezes
• Localización: Paedagogica Historica: International journal of the history of education, ISSN 0030-9230, Vol. 40, Nº. Extra 1-2, 2004 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Secondary education : institutional, cultural and social history), págs. 45-56
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The birth of the Portuguese school system can be situated during Pombal's reform of education. The process did not happen in isolation. Besides the Companhia de Jesus' high schools, which were extinguished, there were private colleges for the teaching of Latin, Greek and Rhetoric. Students had to pay a fee and used facilities in teachers' homes. What place did Pombal bestow to these disciplines and to the new colleges? Which models were adopted? The contents of the first step of Pombal's reform stretched from 1759 to 1769. After the closing of the colleges of the Companhia de Jesus and of Évora University, the birth of high school education started with the foundation of feeless schools of Latin, Greek and Rhetoric, in order to secure a medium level of instruction and preparation for university education. The reform included another branch of education: a School of Commerce (Lisbon), and a School of Navigation and Drawing (Porto) were founded. These schools were aimed first of all at children and grandchildren of tradespeople. Pombal also tried to meet the educational needs of the aristocracy: Nobles College (and later Mafra College) was opened.

    In that period, the colony of Brazil had, at the secondary level of education, some Latin and Rhetoric schools. A number of teachers were sent to Pernambuco and others were hired to cover Bahia's needs in the field. The lack of teachers, mainly of Rhetoric and Greek Grammar, was a serious problem. The implantation of reforms in the Brazilian colony was much harder than in Portugal. Schoolbooks were hardly available and the payment of teachers caused many administrative complications that produced reactions from the students' families. So the teachers used old banned schoolbooks and equally old methods.

    Between Portugal and the colony in Brazil sharp differences existed in the implantation of the school system and the system's structure. In spite of the intense mercantile activities of Brazilian harbours, the colony would only have a School of Commerce in 1809, while in Lisbon such an institution had already opened 50 years before. One could point to other differences. Brazil was never allowed to have a college like Nobles College. The teaching of experimental physics was never integrated in the institution. There was only one ex-Jesuit who gave classes at home. On the colleges' front, one must single out the unique case of Olinda, whose seminary was found by bishop Azeredo Coutinho, one of the most remarkable Illuminist personalities of Portugal and Brazil In 1772 the school system was completed with the creation of Reading, Writing and Counting schools and the adoption of the disciplines of Natural Philosophy and Religion at the secondary level of education. At university level, besides the innovations made in the Faculty of Theology and in the University of Canon and Civil Law, a broad role was recognized for the teaching of experimental physics, chemistry, botanic and zoology, as well as mathematics. This was the reason for the creation of the Philosophy and Mathematics Faculties, with enough resources to guarantee a realistic education.

    In the Brazilian colony, teaching of a scientific orientation was undertaken through the creation of military courses. Courses of Mathematics resulted from artillery education at the end of the seventeenth century (1698) and immediately after that courses in Military Architecture were taught. In the eighteenth century, the Royal Court stimulated the creation of military courses in Brazil and other colonies. In spite of our ignorance of the results of the King's determinations, we know that military schools were founded in 1714, in Bahia, and in 1778 in Pernambuco. In this last city the Military Academy was founded, whose traces were still evident in 1812. But it was in Rio de Janeiro that this education branch was developed further, evolving later into the Royal Academy of Military Architecture and Drawing.

    Due to the arrival in Rio de Janeiro of Queen Maria the First and her son, the future João the Sixth, the capital went through an intense process of cultural development. In 1808 the Navy Academy was founded, with all available scientific tools, books and machines, copying the Lisbon model. It opened its first courses in 1809: mathematics, physics, artillery, navigation and drawing. This institution would eventually be substituted by the Navy School and Naval College. In 1810, the Rio de Janeiro Military Academy was instituted, which later gave rise to the Polytechnic School and the Campo Grande Shooting School.

    High schools were first created in Portugal in 1836. Criticizing Pombal's heritage, some people were convinced that this branch of public education was forming a group of sterile knowledge, almost useless to the science culture, and lacking material that could contribute to the progress of the country's material civilization. Therefore the curriculum in the National Plan of High Schools included scientific and humanistic subjects, as well as technical subjects The implantation of high schools is a process that finished only around 1860. Until that date, in several places, Pombal's old isolated schools of secondary education remained alive.

    In Brazil the process was also painful. Only two seminary schools were active and Latin lessons were dispersed throughout the territory. Much needed was an overall plan that would consolidate this level of education. Later, the Pedro the Second College would be organized conforming with the French lycée model. But nothing stopped the old isolated courses, independent of institutions, from continuing to exist, sometimes in a brilliant way.

    Our conclusions are only provisional. At present, we can state that the development of high schools in Portugal and in the colony of Brazil followed a path that was a legacy from the past. After Independence, education adopted several different guidelines, which, in their turn, moulded future initiatives