Civic spirit and patriotism in female schooling in Brazil: the Home Economics School of Uberaba (Minas Gerais, 1953-1963)

Abstract

The aim of this text is to show the importance of the Home Economics School (Escola de Economia Doméstica) in the process of female schooling developed in the city of Uberaba (Minas Gerais, Brazil) in the period from 1953 to 1963. The ideas of Ratto (1992), Ferreira (2012 and 2014), and Ferreira & Gonçalves Neto (2013) served as a theoretical basis for this discussion. The reference bibliography was consulted and documentation examined in public archives and archives of the school itself in relation to teaching legislation and school life. This investigation revealed a process of schooling for domestic daily life, which combined civic spirit, patriotism, and Catholic moral precepts in a school institution that received youth from Uberaba and neighboring cities. Young women were to learn to perform the role of family managers based on acquisition of scientific knowledge and Catholic values, and their destination would be marriage and the home. Yet, in the case of those who might need it, there was also training in agricultural production related to family subsistence.