"Escolas cheias, cadeias vazias" nota sobre as raízes ideológicas do pensamento educacional brasileiro

Abstract

In the current background of unemployment, violence and precariousness of Brazilian secondary education system, a new discourse has been gaining strength. According to this discourse, the school has the social mission of preventing juvenile criminality. This is not expected to be done by teaching content and skills or by preparing for the job market, but by being a hangout area where students are protected from the "criminal paths". A documentary survey - highlighting Rui Barbosas judgments about national education, which date from 1882-1883 and are centered on the republican project that was taking place - reveals, however, that the motto "full schools, empty jails" is an old one in the educational discourse of the country. It dates from the transition from Empire to Republic and from its consequences on the lives of the cities: the so-called "social issue" of the First Republic, considered by some a "police matter" and by others an "education matter". In spite of our awareness that history is also discontinuity, the analysis will emphasize the continuity of Brazilian historical process, in which ideas and official action - apparently dissimilar - display the same core in different outerwear. In the end of the article, we indicate necessary and urgent measures to be taken if we are not to be held as hostages of the loitering power that is inherent in Brazilian history.