INTRODUCTION

Convinced by the good news he received from his old disciples and friends about the educational reforms in progress in the country where they lived, the Swiss educator Édouard Claparède left for the New World in order to learn about the methods and modes concerning the subject that were being used in Brazilian lands. In addition, he would take the opportunity to visit friends living in Brazil, with whom he was in permanent contact. The long-awaited opportunity arose through an invitation from the Brazilian Association of Education (ABE), in 1930, formulated through a letter from Gustavo Lessa and a telegram from Ernani Lopes, both doctors, sent by Helena Antipoff, who had just arrived from Europe to work in Belo Horizonte⁴. After refusing an invitation formulated, in 1921, by the Brazilian government to work in the country, Édouard Claparède finally heeded the arguments of his former student and collaborator at the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau (IJJR) (Jean-Jacques Rousseau Institute), who had settled in the capital of Minas Gerais in 1929 and engaged in the activities of the School for Improvement, created by Mario Casassanta, during the education reform. This institution was inspired by the Swiss institute to train future teachers who "learned the principles of the new education, with the spirit of the educational sciences and with the aim of becoming inspectors, principals, teachers of school psychology and officials of the upper administration of the schools of Minas Gerais" (^{RUCHAT, 2008}, p. 193-194). Helena Antipoff, in a letter, addressed words of encouragement to him to travel to Brazil, telling him she was sure he was the most important foreign educator referenced in the country.

This notoriety is confirmed by Antipoff upon his arrival in Brazil, a fact that she records several times and resumes before his trip, as a way to encourage him to come, pointing out how well known he was in Brazil. The terms she uses are strong: "the great and purest apostle of the New Education and the greatest authority on psychology", "the great God of the new education and its great inspirer", "Claparède's name is canonized here, if I dare to express myself that way. You will not find a single volume of pedagogy or psychology that does not refer to you as the most competent of scientists in this field," and further, "Claparède, as I have already written, is the most admired name here among pedagogues" (^{RUCHAT, 2008}, p. 193).

Until the arrival of Édouard Claparède, it was impossible to find a single volume of Pedagogy or Psychology that did not allude to his work; however, only one book by him had been published in Brazil - The school and experimental psychology, this in 1928. Translated and prefaced by Lourenço Filho, it was part of the Biblioteca de Educação Collection of the Companhia Melhoramentos de São Paulo (Education Library Collection of the Companhia Melhoramentos de São Paulo). Emerson ^{Silva (2013}) notes that, although there are references to Binet's and Simon's studies of experimental psychology in periodicals preserved in school libraries in São Paulo, before the Brazilian edition,

The school and experimental psychology (...) had not been published in book format. The text originated, not in book form, but as a report for the Swiss Public Instruction Yearbook: "L'École et la psychologie expérimentale", Annuaire de l'Instruction publique en Suisse (“The school and experimental psychology”, Yearbook of Public Education in Switzerland), 1916, pp. 71-130.

In Brazil the book is recommended to primary and secondary teachers, normalists, students and parents. It is the second number of the collection Biblioteca da Educação, organized by professor Lourenço Filho, which had the book Experimental Psychology by Henry Piéron as the first number (^{SILVA, 2013}).

Claparède's coming to Brazil generated great expectation, fed by the newspapers since the previous days⁵. The press reported his arrival, followed by excerpts of a quick interview held moments before the ship docked, when he spoke to the journalists about his friends living in Brazil, referring, among them, to the Polish Waclaw Radecki and the miner Francisco Lins, as well as alluding to the conferences he intended to give during the trip:

-- I have long nourished the desire to visit Brazil, of which I have received so much good news, sent to me by former disciples who live here. I have always hoped to make this trip, but have not done so for some time, due to the countless tasks that made it impossible for me to leave for Switzerland. When, however, an opportunity presented itself, I didn't hesitate to accept the invitation that was made to me by letter addressed by Mr. Gustavo Lessa. And I left immediately to come here, where I finally arrived full of satisfaction.

Afterwards, the great teacher spoke to us about his former disciples, now living in Brazil. He referred to Radecky, Polish by origin but Brazilian by birth, Ms. Antipoff, Francisco Seis [probably a native of Brazil], Mr. Gustavo Lessa and Mr. Gustavo Lessa. Antipoff, Francisco Seis [probably Lins] and others, praising them for the application they have always demonstrated and the talent revealed. Now he hopes to see them all and embrace them with nostalgia (UM EMINENTE..., O Jornal (The Newspaper), 14 Sep. 1930, p. 1).

Certainly, visiting Rio de Janeiro in 1930 was part of a larger strategy of the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau to establish itself as an international reference center. This would be one of the many trips that the educators gathered there would make around the world to disseminate the ideology of the new school. Besides teaching courses, they published books and magazines and promoted congresses and lectures in several countries with the purpose of disseminating their research on childhood and pedagogical innovations.

In order to dimension the importance attributed to the trips made, we point out, in ^{Claparède's autobiography, published in 1959}, that he notes having participated in congresses in several countries such as Austria, Germany, Belgium and the United States. In 1928, he even visited Egypt, occasion in which,

with the collaboration of Ms. Bieneman, a former student of the Rousseau Institute, I undertook a wide-ranging survey, using several tests on the mental development of Egyptian schoolchildren. The need to discover practical solutions showed me more imperiously than ever the urgency of a science of the child and of an experimental pedagogy on which to rely (^{CLAPARÈDE, 1959}, p. 46).

Receiving Édouard Claparède was also part of the articulation strategies of the Brazilian Association of Education's (ABE) movement for educational renewal. The ABE also endeavored to promote conferences with educators from other countries, to publicize news of events, publications and educators' trips abroad. In its Bulletin, especially in the section "Brazilian Association of Education Abroad," as ^{Burlamaqui (2013}) points out, the ABE published articles on the activities of the Bureau International d'Education (International Bureau of Education), which gave visibility to the effort of European educators to build in the interwar period "an international understanding and promote the interests of peace in the world" (^{LÁZARO LORENZE, 2016}, p. 38).

Édouard Claparède's visit to Minas Gerais was also coated with meanings. It was the result of a government effort to bring foreign educators to work on the education project they intended to implement, which implied changes in schools and teacher training. Helena Antipoff was not the first or the only IJJR alumnus to work at the School of Improvement. Before her there was Léon Walther, a Russian psychologist whom she replaced. With her also came Louise Artus, author of several works on the pedagogy of drawing (^{RUCHAT, 2008}) and collaborator who remained in Belo Horizonte until 1932.

If the trips from Brazil to Switzerland at the end of the 1920s and beginning of the 1930s allow us to dimension the importance of the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau (IJJR) in the production of pedagogical models that sought to break with traditional educational practices, As well as the fact that Brazilian educators used study trips to confer legitimacy to the changes they believed were necessary in Brazilian education, the inverse route taken by Swiss educators makes it possible to understand them as a way to consecrate the ideas of the educators and the institute itself as an international reference center.

Since the end of the Great War and thanks to its commitment to pacifism and neutrality, Switzerland has become a neuralgic center of such ideas, which allowed the creation of several international organizations. In the case of education, the founding of the League of Nations in 1919 made it possible to boost the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau, which benefited from its intergovernmental structure, becoming "a place of pilgrimage for education professionals from all over Europe," as ^{Moreau (2016}, p. 57) reminds us. Its creators traveled to several countries to strengthen ties, establish exchanges, disseminate experiences and articulate new contacts, becoming, as Jean Houssaye reminds us, "great travelers, physically, intellectually and collectively" (²⁰⁰⁷, p. 298).

When, finally, the ship docked at the port of Rio de Janeiro, the destination where Claparède met with those who, despite the late hour, were waiting for his disembarkation, there were representatives of the ABE and some of the disciples who had long been waiting for that moment. According to Ruchat,

Claparède's arrival in Rio de Janeiro on the 'Conte Rosso' that had left Genoa on September 2, ¹⁹³⁰ is an event. All his friends were waiting for him at the port. There was Francisco Lins, Laura Jacobina Lacombe, Ernani Lopes, physician, psychiatrist and president of the Brazilian League of Mental Hygiene (founded in 1923). There were also Magalhães, one of the most renowned surgeons in Rio de Janeiro, president of the ABE, Waclaw Radecki (1887-1953), Polish, assistant to Claparède in Geneva, where he did his PhD. (^{RUCHAT, 2008}, p. 195).

We turned to one of his former students who was waiting for him at the harbor docks - Francisco Lins - aiming to broaden the interpretation of the exchange of pedagogical ideas between Switzerland and Brazil, which inspired important initiatives introduced in Minas Gerais' education. Facing the difficulties of dealing with scarce and scattered sources in different custody institutions - Minas Gerais Academy of Letters (AML in Brazilian Portuguese), Municipal Archives of Geneva, Archives of the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseu, Helena Antipoff Documentation & Research Center, Library of the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais - and dealing with a subject little referred to by the historiography of education we chose to work from a biographical perspective, considering him as an intellectual mediator, according to the meaning of ^{Gomes and Hansen (2016}), by which we understand him as an intellectual, despite some of his activities sometimes not being recognized as proper of this group, as in the practices of cultural mediation (^{GOMES; HANSEN, 2016}).

Thus, we consider Francisco Lins as an intellectual, regardless of his performance of "creation" or "mediation", positions that are not fixed (^{GOMES; HANSEN, 2016}). Taking into account also the warning of ^{Bourdieu (2006}) regarding the biographical illusion, which consists in seeing life as a coherent report, with meaning and direction, we understand the limits of this work and the impossibility of reconstructing all aspects of the investigated subject's life. To this end, we made use of letters, chronicles, articles, newspaper articles, syllabuses, and lists of students at the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Sometimes, it was necessary to read the correspondence exchanged between other educators to follow the clues left in them. Such movements that traverse our historiographical operation allow us to glimpse a particular mode of appropriation of the scholastic ideology that circulated in educational circles.

THE DISCIPLES OF THE INSTITUT JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Among Édouard Claparède's former students in Geneva, who were waiting for him at the port of Rio de Janeiro, Laura Jacobina Lacombe was the one who had met him later, since she had traveled to Europe, for the first of many times, only in 1925. When she left, the work developed in Switzerland had already become a driving center for the educational reforms that were intended to be carried out around the world. Waclaw Radecki, however, had finished his doctorate in 1911, and Francisco Lins had studied at the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1912, in the first class composed, among others, by the Russian Helena Antipoff.

Laura Jacobina Lacombe, after studying at the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in 1925, where she lived with Pierre Bovet, Édouard Claparède, Adolphe Ferrière and Jean Piaget, would never stop traveling the world to hear and speak about education, to the extent that, since then, she began to participate in education events abroad, as a representative of the ABE, the Catholic Teachers Association of the Federal District and the World Organization for Pre-School Education (OMEP).

In 1930, when he receives the Swiss educator, he had already been the ABE representative at the IV Congrès International d' Education Nouvelle (IV International Congress of New Education), held in Locarno (^{MIGNOT; PIRES, 2019}); had already participated in the commission of educators of the association coordinated by Delgado de Carvalho to the United States in 1929, especially to the Teachers College of Columbia University, integrated, according to ^{Cardoso (2015}), by Carolina Coelho do Rego Rangel, Noemy da Silveira Rudolfer and Eunice Caldas, from São Paulo, and by Consuelo Pinheiro, Otávio B. Couto e Silva, Décio Lyra da Silva, Othon Henry Leonardos, Julieta Arruda, and Maria dos Reis Campos, from Rio de Janeiro.

Laura Jacobina Lacombe, in a speech given on the occasion of the commemorative session of the centennial of the birth of Édouard Claparède, promoted by the Brazilian Association of Education, revives, among those present, the importance that he had played in the dialogue between ABE and the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau and that allowed him, later, in the context of the movement of Catholic educators, to spread "his version of the new pedagogy" through congresses, courses, conferences, bulletins and magazines. In this opportunity, she points out that, at the moment Claparède decided to come to Brazil, he could not suppose the possibility of finding the country in the midst of a strong political agitation that would keep him here for more than 50 days:

We cannot forget some details of Prof. Claparède's visit to Brazil: he was stranded in Belo Horizonte when the revolution of ¹⁹³⁰ broke out. For a few days he was distressed that all communication with the rest of Brazil and the world had been interrupted. Telling us about this situation, he exclaimed:

Et ces braves 'mineires' ne s'en souciaient même pas. (^{LACOMBE, 1973}, n.p).

When Claparède narrated his experience of traveling to Brazil, published in L'Intermédiaire des Educateurs (The Educators' Intermediary) in 1931, in fact, the extended duration of his stay here was highlighted, since he stated that, at first, he intended to spend only four weeks in the country, a period extended by the outbreak of the Revolution. Before the event, the Swiss educator had been visiting Rio de Janeiro, where he had visited schools inspired by the active school methods. Among them, the school founded by the Lacombe family and run at that time by Laura Lacombe and her mother, as we can see, deserves to be highlighted in his narrative:

As a school most particularly inspired by new methods, we must mention the beautiful private school, founded in 1902 by the Lacombe family and now run by Miss Laure (sic) Lacombe and her mother, which includes pupils of all ages. We feel that happiness reigns there (^{CLAPARÈDE, 1931}, p. 114-115).

The Swiss also wrote about the work developed by Ernani Lopes and Waclaw Radecki, respectively, in the Brazilian League of Mental Hygiene and in the Psychology Laboratory of the Colony of Psychopaths:

As for experimental psychology, it has a nice maze at the headquarters of the Brazilian League of Mental Hygiene, presided over with distinction by Dr. Ernani Lopes. Dr. Radecki has also set up a beautiful psychology laboratory in a colony of psychopaths in the interior, a little far from Rio (^{CLAPARÈDE, 1931}, p. 115).

Regarding the academic ties between Claparède and Waclaw Radecki, who was also waiting for him at the quay of Rio de Janeiro, after his training period in Geneva - when he concluded his doctorate with the thesis Recherches experimentales sur les phénomènes psychoélectriques (Experimental research on psychoelectric phenomena) - there are at least two meetings between them. In 1928, Radecki, living in Rio de Janeiro since 1924, at the invitation of Manoel Bonfim, headed a trip to Europe with a view to psychological studies, with the aim of obtaining guidance on the science of the time, to deepen technical notions regarding the assembly of laboratory, to know the didactic organization of psychology studies and acquire information about their applications to the visited institutions (^{PENNA, 1992}). Participating in the excursion were Flávio Dias, Artur Fajardo da Silveira, Antonio Moniz de Aragão, and Nilton Campos, who visited the Institutes and Laboratories of Psychology of the Universities of Paris, Brussels, Louvain, Cologne, Bonn, Berlin, Warsaw, Krakow, Vienna, Munich, and Geneva.

In his trip report⁶, Nilton Campos states that his stay in Geneva was brief, which did not allow him to make considerations about psychology in Switzerland as a whole, but he presents a description of the science spread there, in which he talks about the work developed by Claparède. At the time of the trip, the IV Congrès International d'Education Nouvelle (IV International Congress of New Education) was taking place in Switzerland, in Locarno. Campos states that, although they did not take part in it, the occasion allowed them to talk to several congressmen after the end of the event, among whom Bovet stands out. There are no references, however, to a possible meeting with Claparède.

Eighteen years after he left the Faculty of Sciences in Geneva and two years after visiting the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Radecki finally had the opportunity to receive Claparède in his laboratory at the Psycopath Colony in Engenho de Dentro, Rio de Janeiro. According to ^{Centofanti (1982}): "In that same 1930, providentially for Radecki's plans, the laboratory had the opportunity to host two great figures of European psychology: Claparède and Kohler" (^{CENTOFANTI, 1982}, p. 17).

After his passage through Rio de Janeiro, Claparède went to Minas Gerais, where he met the School of Improvement founded in Belo Horizonte, the first Brazilian experience of higher education in the area of education and that gave a special emphasis on psychology, inspiring the new educational methods (^{CAMPOS, 2003}). This project gained prominence in the travel narrative of the Swiss educator, who made mention of the presence of foreign educators and teachers who studied in the United States, connoisseurs of the new methods spread by the New School in the world, in the development of this proposal:

It was to establish the foundations of this school that Dr. Simon, from Paris, our colleague Léon Walther had already traveled to Brazil for some months, and that Mrs. Artus and Mrs. Antipoff were summoned for a longer period [...] As teachers, besides three young Brazilian women graduated from Teachers College in New York, Mrs. Antipoff and Mrs. Artus (from Geneva) [...] (^{CLAPARÈDE, 1931}, p. 115-116).

The emphasis on these foreign-trained educators in Claparède's travel narrative is related to the interests of exchanging educational studies and research and the promotion of the New School. Among them, the most prominent name in the institution would be Helena Antipoff, who came to Brazil in 1929, at the invitation of the state government of Minas Gerais, during the implementation of the Francisco Campos reform, one of the most important Brazilian initiatives of appropriation of the New School movement. This reform intended to create a School of Teacher Improvement, to train precisely those who would work in the network of elementary school that was being expanded (^{CAMPOS, 2003}). Antipoff attended the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau between 1912 and 1916, where she obtained a diploma as a psychologist specialized in Educational Psychology. She had been Édouard Claparède's assistant at the IJJR and, when she was invited by Casassanta to be a teacher and to implement the Psychology Laboratory at that school, she started studies and research in Educational Psychology within the Reformation, taking the lead on educational issues while she was coordinating the laboratory.

As already mentioned, Antipoff was a student of the first class of the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an institution founded by Édouard Claparède in 1912, directed by Pierre Bovet, which had on its staff other great educators such as Adolphe Ferrière, Paul Godin, François Naville, Jules Bois, Alice Descoeudres and Mina Audemars. For this group, pedagogy should be improved as a science and in conjunction with other fields of knowledge, such as psychology, sociology, medicine, biology, history and philosophy, with the purpose of providing a more scientific teacher education, based mainly on the first two mentioned areas. The institute was intended to be a school, as well as a research, information and propaganda center for the reformist New School movement.

The students of the first years, as ^{Ruchat (2008}) notes, for the most part, were involved with the dissemination of scholastic-novist principles and practices. In notes, the author highlights the commitment of some of them to circulate the new ideas produced there. Besides Helena Antipoff, who settled in Belo Horizonte, the Brazilian Francisco Lins, the Spaniard Pablo Vila, the Swiss Marguerite Gagnebin, the French Jeanne Evrard, the English Agnès Francklyn, the Portuguese Antonio Sergio de Souza and the Swiss Camillo Bariffi were also worthy of mention.

^{Jornod (1995}) presents a study that provides information about the institution in its first four years. Based on documents from the IJJR Archives, this study points out, quantitatively, the composition of the classes as to nationality, gender, age group, and religion, for example. Besides the 22 regularly enrolled in the winter semester, which started on October 21, 1912 and ended on March 20, 1913, there were, in the composite class, ten more students enrolled as listeners: Hélène Antipoff, Kathe Behrend, H.J.F.W. Brugmans, Joséphine Ciecierska, Demosthènes Depos, Myrriam Liberson, Gabrielle de Madre, Jacob Santos, Ottilie Schaumburg, and Gabrielle Wilgot. Of the 32 students enrolled in the course, among regular students and listeners, the only one from South America was a Brazilian, among the 14 nationalities represented in that first semester. This Brazilian was Francisco Lins, who, between the years 1912 and 1915, was part of the first class of the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau⁷, as can be seen in the list of students⁸.

Although there is not enough evidence of Helena Antipoff's relationship with Francisco Lins, we believe they had at least some contact after they finished their course in Switzerland, since the Brazilian was the subject of some of the letters exchanged between the Russian and Claparède. In one of them, in ¹⁹³⁰, when Antipoff was informed by the Swiss master that the Brazilian would return to Europe, she lamented: "Lins's letter reached me through negligence, too late. Tell him my disappointment. I went to Juiz de Fora, his city, but he had already left”⁹. The aforementioned letter was not found, nor were any others sent or received by Francisco Lins. However, the relationship between the two is evident in Antipoff's interest in the Brazilian's departure: "I don't know if I wrote that I am expecting Daniel here in July. Do you know when the Lins are planning to return to Brazil? If it is July, I will ask them to take care of Daniel"¹⁰. As it is possible to notice, the educator demonstrates a relationship of trust and intimacy to the point of asking Francisco Lins to accompany her son on the trip to Brazil - probably, a relationship that stems from an old bond of friendship, started at the time they studied in the same class at the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

A DISCIPLE OF THE INSTITUT JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Not by chance, in the early morning hours of September 13, 1930, when the luxurious Italian transatlantic liner from which the Swiss educator and psychologist Édouard Claparède disembarked in Guanabara Bay, the Brazilian former student Francisco Lins¹¹ was waiting for him. After all, bringing the Swiss master to Brazil was a desire nurtured for a long time by his former students and friends who lived here, among whom was this intellectual from Minas Gerais, who, despite having played a prominent role in politics, in literature, in the press, and in education, has been forgotten in the historiography of Brazilian education.

From his political involvement in Hermes da Fonseca's presidential campaign emerged a face that manifested itself several times in chronicles published in the press, collected in the book Uma Campanha pro Hermes-Wenceslau (A Hermes-Wenceslau Campaign) (1910). His political relations were certainly decisive to his being designated by the Secretary of Agriculture of Minas Gerais to organize and direct the representation of the state in the International Exhibition of Turin (1911). Preparing to leave for a trip to Europe, Lins received yet another mission: the Secretary of the Interior of Minas Gerais, Delfim Moreira, asked him to study the primary and professional education institutes in Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, France, and Germany. Aware of the obligations he had to fulfill and accompanied by his wife Maria Eugenia Lins, he boarded the ship Halle, in May 1911.

When he shipped to Europe, he was already a member of the Minas Gerais Academy of Letters (AML in Brazilian Portuguese), of which he was a founding member and occupied the chair # 19. He published books, mostly of poems: Canções da Aurora (1886), Harpas das Selvas (1887), Versos (1898), Borboletas Negras (1909), Uma Campanha pro Hermes-Wenceslau (1910) (Songs of the Dawn (1886), Harps of the Jungle (1887), Verses (1898), Black Butterflies (1909), A Campaign for Hermes-Wenceslau). He dedicated himself to journalism as an editor in newspapers of great circulation - Jornal do Comércio de Juiz de Fora (Juiz de Fora Trade Newspaper) and O Pharol (The Lighthouse). The publication of his poetry, chronicles and translations allowed Francisco Lins to make a name for himself in the press and in letters, sometimes signing with different pseudonyms, which were always identified by the initial letters of his own name, F.L.: Fábio Lourival, Fábio Luz, Fábio Lot, Léo Frank, Lins de França, Frank Lins.

Being aware of these varied pseudonyms allows us to attribute texts to Francisco Lins that we previously did not know were his, as in "Pela renovação de Minas" (For the renewal of Minas) (Revista do Ensino “ Teaching Magazine”, Nov. 1927, pp. 563-568), signed under the pseudonym Fábio Lourival; in "Re-writing the history of primary education: the centennial of the 1827 law and the reforms Francisco Campos and Fernando Azevedo", published in the magazine Educação e Pesquisa “Education and Research”, in 2002; and in the book As lentes da história: estudos de história e historiografia da educação no Brasil (The lens of history: studies of history and historiography of education in Brazil), in ²⁰⁰⁵, by Diana Vidal and Luciano Mendes de Faria Filho, recognized historians of education who used the article "Pela renovação de Minas" (For the renewal of Minas) without knowing that the authorship was the same as that of "Cem Anos Depois" (One Hundred Years Later" ) (Revista do Ensino “ Teaching Magazine”, Oct. of 1927, pp. 513-514), also cited by the authors in the same work.

The experience of embarking for the Old World definitely marked the trajectory of this intellectual from Minas Gerais, so much so that, when remembered after his death, this information was present several times. The same happened in the expressions of regret uttered by AML and published in the newspaper Minas Gerais in April 1933. When referring to his performance in education, only the following information is highlighted: "[...] He also distinguished himself in teaching, being twice sent to Europe, in commission from the Government of Minas Gerais, in order to study the problems of teaching. Lately he was a professor at the Official Normal School. [...]" (^{MANIFESTAÇÕES}..., Minas Geraes, April 22, 1933, p. 5).

When Francisco Lins embarked for Europe, he was in charge of disseminating, in Brazil, the ideas, models and educational methods developed abroad. While traveling to Switzerland, he ended up joining the Institute founded by Claparède and Bovet, and, years later, the newspaper Minas Gerais recognized the importance of the educator from Minas Gerais in the introduction of these ideas in the country: "Everything indicates that the glory of introducing in Brazil the ideas of Claparède and Bovet, regarding the education of children, belongs to him" (^ACADEMIA..., Minas Geraes, Aug. 20, 1959, p. 20).

The trip to Europe lasted longer than expected, as the miner stayed there until December 1917, returning to Brazil in the middle of the First World War. His trip report was not found; however, from the IJJR documentation we are informed that he attended four semesters at the institution between 1912 and 1915. There is no evidence that the Brazilian was able to obtain his degree from the Institute, but there is evidence that he attended the regular course¹².

Besides the realization of an old dream of getting to know in person the countries he had references to only through his readings, this first trip marked his life also because of the relationships he acquired while living in the Old World, which allowed him to get closer to the ideas that circulated in that space, among which stand out, for example, the knowledge he gained about experimental psychology, These themes were contemplated in the education of the students who attended the Institute since its first class¹³ and were recurrently treated by the educator from Minas Gerais in texts published in newspapers in the years following his trip.

During his time studying in Geneva, Francisco Lins not only got to know the latest in educational ideas and methods, but also established relationships with renowned educators who worked there, such as Adolphe Ferrière, Paul Godin, François Naville, and Jules Bois. Such experience legitimized him as an intellectual capable of interfering in the debate about the directions of Brazilian education and, in particular, of Minas Gerais' education, becoming a source of pride for the state, as it is clear in one of his chronicles published in the newspaper Minas Geraes:

I was a student of this highly regarded establishment since the day of its inauguration, since the opening of its courses, on October 22, 1912. Then I was able to get in touch with Paul Godin, Ferrière, Naville, Jules Bois, also emeritus professors, and others [...] (^INSTITUTE, Minas Geraes, March 21, 1930, p. 5).

Much of what he learned during his time in Europe, visiting institutes in several countries and studying with renowned educators, he disseminated through texts published in the press; in these texts, he promoted the circulation of pedagogical innovations, always with a critical position about the national reality and with a certain distrust of the uncritical importation of foreign models. In 1924, he wrote ten articles in the periodical O Paiz (The Country), based on his travel experience: “O problema da educação”, “A educação, a instrução e o lixo”, “Escolas infantis”, “Grupos escolares”, “Escolas para anormaes”, “Escolas primárias superiores”, “Escolas normaes”, “Reformas das escolas normaes”, “Um novo gymnasio”, and “Uma Faculdade de Sciencias da Educação.” ("The problem of education," "Education, instruction and trash," "Infant schools," "School groups," "Schools for abnormalities," "Higher elementary school," "Standard schools," "Reforms of standard schools," "A new gymnasium," and "A Faculty of Educational Sciences”).

In an exercise in comparison, he identified problems in national education and how similar issues were solved in other countries. In dealing with his travel experience, the educator operates a work of translation of the new pedagogical models he met. In this practice of appropriation, he attributes new meanings to what he has seen and experienced and elaborates his own thinking, thus being not only a mediator, but a creator of proposals for intervention (^{GOMES; HANSEN, 2016}, p. 20).

The trip to Europe to study also gave him legitimacy to assume leadership positions in education, such as the rectorship of the Externato do Ginásio Mineiro de Barbacena (Boarding School of the Mineiro Gymnasium of Barbacena), in which he remained between 1919 and 1925. About this appointment as rector of the institution, the State President, Arthur Bernardes, in a message to the Mineiro Congress in 1919, stated that Lins was a "well-known specialist in teaching matters"¹⁴.

The educator published texts in Revista do Ensino, sometimes using the pseudonym Fábio Lourival, with the following titles: “A educação e a política”, “Cem annos depois”, “Book T. Washington - o educador negro”, “Pela Renovação de Minas: a festa de 15 de outubro” ("Education and politics", "A hundred years later", "Book T. Washington - the black educator", " For the Renewal of Minas: the October 15 party ", besides translating the text “Relações da escola com a família” ("School and family relations"). In “A educação e a política” ("Education and Politics") (Revista do Ensino, Apr. 1927, p. 420), he wrote about the relationship between politics and education, stating that they are dependent on each other to the point of confusion. He understood that a politician should prioritize, in his program, projects for the education of the people: "new progress in the education of the people is of greater importance than the discovery of a gold mine. Man is the first capital and the first machine" (p. 420). For him, democracy and education would attract each other, considering education in the Republic as a necessity, as the only guarantee of democracy. Education would be grounded in science, aiming at the promotion of democratic virtues. According to ^{Faria Filho (2010}), the primacy of education over other national issues, brought in his article, was recurrent in the rhetoric of every reform proposal in the 20th century.

Already in the text “Cem anos depois” ("One hundred years later"), published on the occasion of the celebrations of the centennial of the promulgation of the first law on public instruction in independent Brazil, which constituted a milestone for national education by making public primary schooling official for all in Brazil, Francisco Lins said that Brazil was still looking for the ideal school, even after one hundred years of elementary school; however, in reference to the policies underway in the country, he stated that "now, it seems to create a new soul..." (^CEM..., Revista do Ensino, Oct. 1927, p. 513-514). He was probably referring here to the educational renovation plans promoted by Francisco Campos and Fernando de Azevedo, divulged in the midst of the Centennial celebrations. While Francisco Campos was promulgating the decree reforming primary, technical-professional and normal education in Minas Gerais, Fernando de Azevedo, only a week later, was publishing the preliminary draft of the Reform of Public Instruction in the Federal District. There were, then, two projects that, despite the approximations, based either on the idea of "modern school" or on the "active school", were different, insofar as the reformers from Minas Gerais sought to reconcile their proposal with the Catholic tradition, which required a certain distancing from the new school perspectives - they wanted, thus, the new, but seeking to maintain tradition (^{VIDAL; FARIA FILHO, 2005}).

Francisco Lins understood that "it is certain that progress, the greatness of nations depends on the organization of their schools" (^CEM..., Revista do Ensino, Oct. 1927, p. 513-514), questioning himself about what would be ideal schools, considering that those existing at that time in the country left much to be desired. According to him, the programs were chaotic, modern methods were unknown and, when they were, they were poorly applied, for lack of understanding; and most teachers, coming out of normal schools "poorly organized", did not have the "indispensable preparation" to consciously exercise their function (^CEM..., Revista do Ensino, Oct. 1927, p. 513-514). He concluded that it was necessary to give new organization to teaching and to have new teachers. The arguments used by Lins, which announced the problems with methods and teacher training as a way to promote reform, coincided among reformers, being only updated throughout the 20th century, as pointed out by ^{Faria Filho (2010}):

The centrality of the teacher in the educational process and the consequent accountability of the same for school failure; the great importance attributed to the method in the definition of what a quality school is; the disqualification of the teacher's experience and the emphatic defense of the need for their training; the coincidence between reform and modernity the combat against tradition and the affirmation of the superiority of the new and, finally, the reform of the school as a touchstone for social reform are just some of the topics continuously updated in reformist arguments (^{FARIA FILHO, 2010}, p. 22).

The educator presented the modern school, which he claimed was not known in Brazil. Moreover, he said that professional education, at that moment, would have the objective of revealing the children's aptitudes, conceiving professional orientation as a national problem. This was a subject addressed in other texts, in which he stated that "The question of aptitudes has capital importance" (^CEM..., Revista do Ensino, Oct. 1927, p. 514).

In 1927, he worked in the organization of the I Congress of Primary Instruction in Minas Gerais, an event organized by the Minas Gerais government that sought to define the situation of public primary instruction in the state in order to elaborate the bases for the Education Reform intended by the Secretary of the Interior Affairs, Francisco Campos. At the time he was appointed to compose the organizing committee, Revista do Ensino reported that the commissions were composed of primary, secondary, and higher education teachers, inspectors, and other "people of notable competence in the matter" (^CONGRESS..., Revista do Ensino, Oct. 1926, p. 346). During the event, Lins acted as rapporteur of the 4th and 6th theses that dealt with the General Teaching Organization. The prominent role he assumed in the Congress shows the relevant position he held in the field of Minas Gerais' education during the discussion period of the educational reform projects that would be promoted from that year on.

As reported by Revista do Ensino (Aug./ Sept. 1927), when discussing possible flaws in the current organization of primary education and the means to correct them, in the 4th thesis on the General Organization of Teaching, Francisco Lins reported the faults and defects of Minas Gerais' education, attributing them to the poor quality of the state's normal education and the complication of the teaching programs. He concluded that it was necessary to reorganize the normal school and simplify the primary course syllabus, first teaching reading, writing and counting, followed by a broader course of complementary knowledge.

This was in line with the political program of the President of the State of Minas Gerais, Antônio Carlos, and the Secretary of the Interior, Francisco Campos, who favored primary and normal education. The option for the first was justified by the benefits of citizenship, since the teaching of reading and writing was a condition for the right to vote; and the interest for the second was based on the understanding of teacher training as fundamental to the success of primary education (^{PEIXOTO, 2003}). This central concern was brought together in the reform that included regulatory documents and teaching programs for primary education and normal schools between 1927 and 1928 (^{OLIVEIRA, 2000}).

In the same way, Lins understood the reform of normal education together with that of primary education - so much so that he dedicated himself to the theme in some of his articles, such as "Escolas Normaes" (“Normal Schools”), in which he denounces the situation of these institutions and affirms the importance of the formation of teachers as a central point for the reform of public education:

Guizot said that "public instruction is entirely in the escolas normaes (normal schools), and that its progress is measured by the progress of these institutes." And Julio Ferry said that "there is no public education without the escolas normaes. If we can't save ours from the shipwreck that threatens them, what will become of us? (^{ESCOLAS NORMAES}..., O Paiz (The Country), 3 Dec. 1924, p. 4)

In "Reformas das escolas normaes" (Reforms of the Normal Schools) (O Paiz, 19 Dec. ¹⁹²⁴, p. 4), he pointed out the need for a new organization of teaching, in which the study of pedagogy - based on the psychology of the child - and of morals should predominate. He advocated, therefore, a teacher training based on studies of the educational sciences and the child. To this end, he resorted to the teachings of his great master: "pedagogy - Eduardo Claparède wrote - must rest on the knowledge of the child, as horticulture rests on the knowledge of plants, it is an elementary truth" (^REFORMS..., O Paiz, 19 Dec. 1924, p. 4). The educator shows, thus, that he considered that reforms in normal education should be based on the ideas provided by the New School movement and disseminated at the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau:

The determination of the qualities required in the educator derives from the psychology of the child, and around this should revolve all study in standard schools.

[...]

Then, the modern scientific spirit should animate the entire course, occupying a large part of it the experimental psychology. To each establishment a school for the application of experimentation would be attached. The new teaching methods would be seriously studied, as well as questions concerning the physical development of the child, hygiene, organization, school inspection, etc. (^REFORMS..., O Paiz, 19 Dec. 1924, p. 4)

In a context of effervescence of ideas, the Reform of Francisco Campos was executed. Among the measures promoted from this reform, we highlight the creation of the Juiz de Fora Official Normal School, by Decree No. 8.245 of February 18, 1928 (^{OLIVEIRA, 2000}). The teaching staff of the institution, when it was inaugurated, was composed of representatives of the intellectuals of Juiz Fora¹⁵, among whom we find, besides Francisco Lins, others such as Albina de Araújo Alves, Antônio da Cunha Figueiredo, Brasília Marques Lopes, Cincinato Duque Bicalho, Ercília D'Avila, Francisco Salles Oliveira, Frederico Alvares de Assis, Gilberto de Alencar, Harold Santos, Irma Grande, João Massena, João Augusto Godinho, José Martinho da Rocha, Lindolpho Gomes, Maria Adelaide Lopes Peçanha, Maria Antonia Penido Monteiro, Maria da Glória Carvalho, Maria Araújo Ferreira Malta, Maria do Carmo Penido Monteiro, Oswaldo Velloso, and Raphael Cirigliano (OLIVEIRA, 2000). Although ^{Ruchat (2008}) points out Francisco Lins as having been the institution's director, based on the study developed by Arielle ^{Jornod (1995}), Oliveira (2000) states that, since its foundation until 1933, the educational establishment was under the direction of professor João Augusto Massena, who was succeeded by Américo Repetto. Therefore, the information we have is that Lins remained as a full member of the Institution since its creation, in 1928 until his death, in 1933.

As soon as it was created, the Juiz de Fora Normal School catered only to the female sex and had three courses: the Adaptation Course, lasting two years, complementary to primary education and intended for candidates to the Preparatory Course; the Preparatory Course, lasting three years, was reserved for teaching general culture, indispensable for the training of primary teachers; and the Application Course, lasting two years, aimed at training aspirants to primary teaching. In order to enter the latter, students had to complete the Preparatory Course and take admission exams. The Application Course covered the subjects of Educational Psychology, Biology, Hygiene, Methodology, History of Civilization, History of the Methods and Processes of Education and Professional Practice. This organization met some of the wishes of Francisco Lins, who argued that normal schools should teach pedagogical subjects and that general culture should be required in entrance examinations:

[...] the pedagogical culture, professional, separates the part of general culture, as is already done in the United States and in many European countries. In any case, for enrollment, candidates would be required to present certificates of the exams [...] as happens in higher education establishments (^REFORMS, O Paiz, 19 Dec. 1924, p. 4).

In the same way, the great concern with the disciplinary organization at school, registered in the first years of the Escola Normal (^{OLIVEIRA, 2000}), was in accordance with the ideas presented by Lins when he stated that discipline would be indispensable in the formation of future teachers (O Paiz, 3 Dec. 1924, p. 4). The author also calls attention to the fact that discipline issues were subjects in the first meetings of the school's Congregation, as, for instance, a recommendation from the principal Augusto Massena to the teachers about the need to comply with the regulation so that they would not forget that they were training future teachers. Similarly, Francisco Lins considered the importance of example in learning discipline:

Force is that the educator be an upright spirit and never neglect any means to exert his salutary influence, which he should use, not only in the course of his familiar words, but also in the course of all his lessons. This should be a constant thought, an action of every moment (^{ESCOLAS NORMAES}..., O Paiz, 3 Dec. 1924, p. 4).

Normal education, however, was not the only resource for training teachers to work in the reformed schools. Another proposal of the reformers can be seen in the Congress of Primary Instruction, through the 6th thesis on the General Organization of Teaching, which discussed the need for the state to send commissions abroad. The Revista do Ensino recorded the exposition of Francisco Lins' ideas in reporting the thesis

It is advisable that the State send abroad - to Europe and the United States - commissions of teachers to study the organization of the elementary school, the methods of teaching, etc., taking in advance the necessary precautions so that over there the envoys are not given over to pleasure rather than study. And that, absolutely, when these commissions are organized, no compromises are allowed, and that they are made up of people who are truly capable, both morally and intellectually.

At the same time, it is advisable to hire great pedagogists abroad, men full of knowledge and experience, so that they can come and help us in the realization of the great work in project (PRIMEIRO (FIRST).., Revista do Ensino, Aug/Sept 1927, p. 478).

As we can see, despite having benefited from a travel commission between 1911 and 1917, Lins defended caution in sending Brazilian educators to study abroad; on the other hand, he was in favor of hiring foreign teachers. After discussions with congressmen who were against his conclusions, several substitutes and amendments were added and, finally, they approved that it would be at the administration's discretion to send education professionals abroad to study the organization and processes of teaching. Bringing foreign educators to Brazil was also an idea that Lins had previously defended. In his texts in the newspaper O Paiz, he even recommended the hiring of Swiss teacher Mlle. Audemars, to organize the children's schools; and that of Mllele. Descoeudres, of the Geneva Institute, to organize schools for the then called abnormal (^{ESCOLAS INFANTIS (INFANT SCHOOLS}), O Paiz, 15 Nov. 1924, p. 4; ^{ESCOLAS PARA ANORMAES (SCHOOLS FOR THE ABNORMAL}), O Paiz, 25 Nov. 1924, p.6). We found no evidence that he had suggested the name of Helena Antipoff, with whom he had studied in Geneva.

However, among the names suggested by Lins, the name of the educator Édouard Claparède undoubtedly stands out as the one he preferred. Insistently, over the years, he communicated this personal desire to the press. In the article "Uma Faculdade das Sciencias da Educação" ("A Faculty of Educational Sciences) (O Paiz, 31 Dec. 1924, p. 4), he wrote about the need to found in Brazil an institute of high pedagogical studies, similar to the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Institute, where he had studied. This establishment would deal with all questions related to education; it would be a faculty and also a center for research, information and propaganda; it would publish a journal, include a library and a school museum. The defense of the creation of this important institution was accompanied by the suggestion of the name of Édouard Claparède to be its director. According to Francisco Lins, the ability to direct this enterprise would require a series of qualities that only Claparède possessed, further stating that it would not be difficult to bring the Swiss to the country (^{UMA FACULDADE}..., O Paiz, 31 Dec. 1924, p. 4). Lins takes up this idea several times. In 1929, the newspaper Minas Geraes published the chronicle O professor Ed. Claparède (The Professor Ed. Claparède), in which he emphasized the qualities of his former master, regretting that the Brazilian government had not invited him to come to Brazil:

I greatly desired to see him in Brazil, working for the reform of our educational establishments. I spoke to him about this in Geneva several times, and in the columns of our newspapers, also several times, I ardently expressed this desire. Having been a disciple of Professor Claparède, having lived with him for a long time, I naturally know him very well, I know how much he is worth, how luminous his spirit is, how noble his feelings are, how many services he could render us if we were fortunate enough to bring him to our land.

[How good this man is, how simple, how great! A wise man like few others. A powerful brain, a noble soul. It is a pity that he is not now in Minas, directing the work that has begun to solve the problem that interests us so particularly. (^{O PROFESSOR}/THE PROFESSOR)..., Minas Geraes, July 1 and 2, 1929, p. 6).

The insistent suggestion was not heeded. However, Édouard Claparède sent students who contributed to the reform of education in other countries, as Rogério ^{Fernandes (2007}, p. 218) reminds us when he focuses on the relationship established by Portuguese educators with that Swiss institute, noting that it was "the main center of production of the new school theory. This caused Faria de Vasconcelos, founder of a new school in Belgium after the 1914-1918 war, to retire to Geneva, which both brought him closer to Claparède and Ferrière and allowed him to be "later invited to contribute to the diffusion of this pedagogical current in Latin America, namely in Cuba and Bolivia, where he led school reforms" (^{FERNANDES, 2007}, p. 218).

In 1930, Lins returned to Europe, when he was in Geneva and Paris, once again on an official commission from the Minas Gerais government. Among the activities he performed during his stay in Europe, he visited the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau and met with his former professors Édouard Claparède and Adolphe Ferrière. On that occasion, he wrote chronicles to the readers of the newspaper Minas Geraes, in which he narrated details of his trip: “A Aliança Liberal no Rio”; “O Rio de Janeiro e o Rio de hontem”; “Conversando com o oceano”; “Uma grande cidade”; “A cidade Refúgio, Instituto J. J. Rousseau”; “Um colossal guarda-comidas”; “A vida na Suissa”; “Adolphe Ferrière”; “A publicidade: a nossa Propaganda na Europa”; “O Dr. Roux”; "Do sonho á realidade"; "As tristezas de Paris"; "A Europa vae mal"; "A orientação profissional"; "A minha volta - Um poeta brasileiro em Paris - O teatro a bordo - A troupe "Rose-Marie" - Um banho de sereias num mar de prata - Como a viagem de Ulysses" ("The Liberal Alliance in Rio"; "Rio de Janeiro and yesterday's Rio"; "Talking to the ocean"; "A great city"; "The city of refuge, Institute J. J. Rousseau"; "A colossal food keeper"; "Life in Switzerland"; "Adolphe Ferrière"; "Advertising: our Propaganda in Europe"; "Dr. Roux";"From dream to reality"; "The sorrows of Paris"; "Europe is going badly"; "Professional orientation"; "My return - A Brazilian poet in Paris - The theater on board - The troupe "Rose-Marie" - A mermaids' swim in a sea of silver - Like the voyage of Ulysses".). In one of these chronicles, Francisco Lins demonstrated again his dissatisfaction for not having attended to his request to invite Claparède to come to Brazil and, once more, reinforced the importance of this enterprise which, according to him, would also be of interest to the Swiss educator:

When I returned to our state, after my first trip to Europe, many articles I wrote recalling the convenience of Claparède's coming to Minas, so that, under his direction, we could better, with greater security, organize public instruction. Too bad, then, that they didn't take any notice of my advice. More than once I have heard from the lips of this professor that, if he had received an invitation to come to our land, he would not have failed to accept it (^INSTITUTE..., Minas Geraes, 21 Mar. 1930, p. 5).

During his stay in Switzerland, in 1930, Lins met Claparède. Most likely, it was in this episode that he heard "from the Swiss educator's own lips" the interest in visiting Brazil. Perhaps he had personally arranged Claparède's trip, since, in a letter to Helena Antipoff, when talking about the Lins' stay in Europe, Claparède mentions his possible visit to the country in August of that year: "The Lins are here. What a pleasure to see them again; they haven't changed. Shall I prepare to leave in August?"¹⁶

The visit to the master and friend had been announced by Francisco Lins in a letter to Claparède before he arrived in Geneva: "I have written to you from Brazil saying that my wife and I will soon be in Switzerland, and we will be there for three days. Next week we will go to Geneva, to present our respects to you and to the esteemed Madame Claparède."¹⁷ Moreover, in another missive sent by Lins when he was no longer in Geneva, we can observe that they met at least once, together with their families:

Thank you for your kind letter. I ask you to send me the photo you mentioned, taken in your beautiful Parc de Champel (Champel Park).

What a pleasure to see us photographed with you and by you!¹⁸

But it is possible that the meeting took place more than once, for, in a letter to Helena Antipoff, during this period, Claparède states that, after a surgery that Lins was going to undergo, they intended to meet again: "I could not, unfortunately, I saw the Lins very little - They will return here after Mr. Lins' operation (hernia)."¹⁹ The correspondence sent to Claparède²⁰ in this period indicates that they established relationships beyond that of master and disciple and maintained contact between the families even after the Minas teacher returned to Brazil. A particular evidence of this relationship presents itself in the way Lins said goodbye and signed the letters addressed to the Swiss educator and his family: "[...] To all of you from the heart, former student, friend, and admirer, Francisco Lins."²¹ "[...] Your admirer and friend, Francisco Lins."²² "[...] Our respect to Madame Claparéde. Our sincere wishes for her joy, for the joy of her two children, for yours. With all my heart, Francisco Lins."²³

There is still to be investigated about the relationship between Francisco Lins and Édouard Claparède, since there are few traces of this Brazilian intellectual. So far, we have not found traces of the events that involved the Brazilian and the Swiss during their visit to Brazil. We can only affirm that Francisco Lins' affection was recognized by Claparède when he, speaking of his arrival in Brazil, in a letter to Helena Antipoff, recalls that Lins and his wife were waiting for him at the port of Rio de Janeiro and that they received him kindly, despite the ship's delay: "My boat was late; it only arrived at midnight! The Lins had come to wait for me on the platform. I was kindly received."²⁴

The relationship of admiration and friendship that Lins had for his former master justifies the wait at the port. However, there is no evidence that the insistence of the intellectual from Minas Gerais materialized in any way other than the published texts. However, it seems no coincidence that in the same year of his visit to Europe, Lins managed to fulfill his desire to see the great Swiss master in his country. We can suppose that, somehow, his political relations, which resulted in two trips commissioned by the government, also made it possible for this dream to come true.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

Francisco Lins' wait for Édouard Claparède long precedes his arrival at the port in ¹⁹³⁰. On several occasions, the miner recommended this trip to the Brazilian government. As a great admirer of Claparède's work, he considered his ideas and works as great sources of inspiration to solve the problems of Brazilian education.

The relationship established with the Swiss was made possible by his admission to the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in 1912. This experience transformed the life of this Minas Gerais educator, who, although he is unknown today, once played a considerable role in the context of the state's education reform. Upon his return to Brazil, in 1917, he took on the responsibility of circulating the knowledge obtained during his time in Europe. Recognized from then on as an expert in teaching, he would be requested to contribute to the discussions and assume important public positions in education. In these spaces, he identified problems and made proposals, based on new ideas and foreign educational models.

Despite having been granted study missions to Europe twice, of his approach to the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau, especially to Édouard Claparède, in more than one chronicle published in the national and Minas Gerais press, Francisco Lins criticized those who intended to apply foreign models without knowledge of the national reality, as in his criticism of the 1906²⁵ Reform of Primary and Normal Education, promoted by João Pinheiro's government, which institutionalized the school groups in Minas Gerais:

The first school groups of Minas were founded eighteen years ago, more or less, after a miner went to Argentina and saw that in Buenos Aires, they are numerous. Then, this miner didn't have eyes to see that Buenos Aires is not Ressaquinha, nor Carandahy (both cities in Minas Gerais, two small villages that are in the interior of the State and where were instituted scholar groups.

Here is one more proof that we know nothing but imitate, and imitate foolishly. Nobody thinks, I won't say in creating, but in adapting, and this is what we have to do (GRUPOS ESCOLARES (SCHOOL GROUPS), O Paiz, Nov. 23, 1924, p. 5).

This position is marked in his production when he writes to the newspaper O Paiz, in 1924, in which he evokes his experience as an education inspector to legitimize his knowledge of the national reality and indicate its problems (^{O PROBLEMA}/THE PROBLEM)..., O Paiz, 22 Oct. 1924, p. 4; ^{ESCOLAS NORMAES..}., O Paiz, 3 Dec. 1924, p. 4). As a mediating intellectual, who translates and creates, he appropriated the concerns of the Swiss educator and psychologist in the understanding of the role of the school and of the teacher attentive to the needs, interests, and development of the children, and elaborated proposals, such as the one for the formation of teachers, which involved a redefinition of the Escola Normal as a privileged space for changes inspired in the ideals and practices of the Scholastic Renovationists. Possibly, Lins felt contemplated with the creation of the Escola de Aperfeiçoamento (Improvement School), since such project was based on the IJJR and received foreign teachers, as he projected and manifested in articles, such as those published in O Paiz.

Apparently, the desire to create a similar institution was also shared by other Brazilian intellectuals who studied there, as was the case of educator Antônia Ribeiro de Castro Lopes, who, after her studies at the IJJR, participated in the creation of the Instituto Fluminense de Sciencias Educacionais (Fluminense Institute of Educational Sciences), in 1931, in Campos. The institution in the interior of the state was designed along the lines of the Geneva Institute and similar to those that were being created in other states under the inspiration of the Scholastic Movement. This project was praised and compared to the School of Improvement of Belo Horizonte, by Theobaldo de Miranda Santos²⁶, who directed the institution (^{MIGNOT, 2007}).

Thus, we understand that Francisco Lins, in the role of intellectual of his time, constituted by his experiences and shaped by his networks of belonging, would not have an unusual or completely innovative thought. On the contrary, his rhetoric resembled that of other reformers when he presented Brazilian education as chaotic and in need of a major reform. At the same time, his particular experiences in Minas Gerais' education and his trips to Europe gave originality to his reflections, since he appropriated what he knew while traveling and elaborated reflections about national education.

When he received the Swiss educator and psychologist, along with Waclaw Radecki and Laura Jacobina Lacombe, former students of the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Francisco Lins planned that the visit to Belo Horizonte could broaden the possibilities of applying his teachings in Minas Gerais' education. When awaiting the master's arrival at the edge of the quay of the port of Rio de Janeiro, he expected more than to meet an old friend again; that episode represented for the Minas Gerais educator a way to honor the ideas of the former master, obtain his approval for the work developed and foster new ideas for reforms in Brazilian education and, in particular, the reform of Minas Gerais.

This work sought, from a biographical perspective, to shed light on a subject that, despite the efforts made to bring his master to Brazil, curiously remained on the margins of the historiography of education, possibly because he used pseudonyms to sign even his texts on this area. Perhaps the death of Francisco ^{Lins, in 1933}, made it impossible for him to be projected on the national scene. Or, who knows, his presence at the reception to the Swiss master was overshadowed by Helena Antipoff, who, at that moment, was beginning to develop a long-lasting and highly visible work at the Escola de Aperfeiçoamento?