O romper do silêncio: a trajetória da educação escolar em Arapiraca (AL), do seu povoamento até a década de 1950

Abstract

Departing from the pedagogical action developed in Arapiraca, this work introduces for the first time a data collection and the analysis of the trajectory of the school education in that city, from the beginning of its population until the decade of 1950. The aim of this study is to try to explain why the school education, that was slow and not expressive in relation to other cities of the state of Alagoas, has at a certain point of its history advanced more than other municipalities. This research leads to the conclusion that the agricultural activity of tobacco is a factor that both enfeebled and contributed to the educational process, with the vertiginous impulse that is going to transform the city of Arapiraca in the second largest city in the state, economically and socially speaking. A predominant Christian paternalistic ethics in the practicing of teachers who were indicated by local leaders or hired by the families, under strong orientation of the Catholic church, is considered a nodal point in the construction of that society and consequently in the school education process. In this process of institutional development of the school education in Arapiraca, a special emphasis was given to Adriano Jorge Elementary School, created in 1940. This establishment, a private school in 1950, a private confessional school dedicated to the feminine education and a school from the National Campaign for Free High Schools (Campanha Nacional de Educandários Gratuitos – CENEG) gave new directions to the process of education in Arapiraca, impulsing the city from the last to the first places in terms of educational opportunities in the interior of Alagoas.