“Júpiter vibrando o raio” em defesa do método português de A.F. de Castilho

Abstract

In this article we present the trajectory of the Portuguese Method, the criticisms attributed to it in Portugal, mainly by teachers, and the defense strategies of António Feliciano de Castilho and his followers in favor of what they considered as the Modern Method as opposed to the old. We address Castilho’s proposal, born on the island of São Miguel (in the Azores), which expanded to other Portuguese territories when he assumed the role of disseminating it through various means: what, at first, he called Sudden Reading (1st edition) and then the Castilho Method (2nd edition). Later, it became known as the Portuguese Method (3rd and 4th editions). It is concluded that the adoption of teaching methods, rather than trying to present innovations to the teaching and learning of reading, constituted, as in the case of the Portuguese Method, spaces of disputes between those who defended reforms in teaching and those who preferred to maintain current practices and knowledge.