Introduction

This article is about the Intuitive Method present in the school organization and operation in the society of Paraná in the first decade of the 20th century, according to the pedagogical press. As a general proposition, it is suggested to understand how the Intuitive Method was noticed by the contributors to the journal A Escola (1906-1910) linked to the Public Teachers' Guild of the State of Paraná.

The use of this press as a source was due to the conception that, in the field of History of Education, elements which, for a long time, had no space in historiography started to be problematized, since the construction of history was restricted to unofficial documental studies considered as safe strategies to establish absolute truths (^{LOPES; GALVÃO, 2005}). In view of the new possibilities of sources and themes, there is the possibility to study the field of Education considering the specialized press frequent in works of several authors, among them: Sousa and Catani (1994); Catani (1996); ^{Carvalho (1998}); ^{Bastos (2002}); ^{Nóvoa (2002}); ^{Rodrigues and Biccas (2015}).

The pedagogical press talks about the yearnings and fears concerning the educational field in a given time, space, and sociocultural conjuncture. They are unique in character and allow a contextualized perception of events in relation to legal guidelines and determinations, which also materialized in the reality of the school apparatus. ^{Catani (1996}) highlights that:

In fact, the specialized journal s in education, in Brazil and in other countries, in general, constitute a privileged instance for the apprehension of the modes of operation of the educational field while they circulate information about the pedagogical work and the improvement of teaching practices, the specific teaching of subjects, the organization of the systems, the claims of the teaching category and other themes that emerge from the professional space [...] (^{CATANI, 1996}, p. 117)².

There is a variety of possible themes in a certain pedagogical journal, and this characterizes the importance of a specialized periodical as a historical source of research, since its contents are singular and express conceptions of a public, as well as a context marked by its specificities.

We assume here the journal A Escola (1906-1910)³ as an educational press and as a historical source. It has to contribute to the knowledge and understanding of the choice of the Intuitive Method in Paraná Public Instruction in detriment of other teaching methods disseminated in the first decade of the twentieth century, the time of elaboration and dissemination of the issues of the journal A Escola.

While reading the journal, elements were gradually sought to define an axis for the research presented here. Initially, the teaching methods were assumed as an axis, representing, in a way, the concerns of the teachers until today. This theme was chosen after a careful reading of the contents of A Escola journal, which allowed us to identify how they were approached by the journal's collaborators. Then, the focus was directed to the Intuitive Method, since it was defended as the most coherent method to meet the educational conceptions linked to the republican ideals.

We started from the premise that methods accompany the history of school education. They make explicit conceptions of education, of the student, and of pedagogical materials. In the words of ^{Oliveira (2003}, p. 231), "[...] the history of teaching methods is linked to the history of mankind's education, and so closely that we cannot talk about one without also talking about the other"⁴. The author, when discussing the materials produced in relation to methods, especially those related to reading and elaborated by some 19th century teachers, adds that: "[...] the methods that exist are children of long and painful efforts of their authors, and were patiently prepared under a plan or a principle, which was born, fecundated and developed in the light of experience"⁵ (^{OLIVEIRA, 2003}, p. 240).

Methods are elaborated by means of a given context and the experiences arising from the relationships that are established in this context. When defining methods, ^{Morandi (2002}, p. 26) states that method is etymologically that which allows one to ascend to the place one seeks: it is a path (odos, "road") that allows one to cross (meta, "through"). The meaning of a method is that of walking and of a procedure, of the finalized and organized continuation of an activity on a path that allows one to find. The method depends at "[...] the same time on what it aims at and the path that leads there: it is conduct and direction" (^{MORANDI, 2002}, p. 26)⁶.

The presence of teaching methods in the pedagogical press helps in understanding the limits and possibilities of education in a given period and social place. This research sought, in general terms, to understand how the Intuitive Method was thought of for Paraná Public Instruction by the contributors to A Escola journal (1906-1910).

The defense of the Intuitive Method and the approximations of the journal A Escola with the republican ideals

The journal A Escola, as an educational press located in Curitiba, capital of Paraná State, presents discussions about teaching methods, emphasizing the defense of the Intuitive Method. It is worth mentioning that this defense was directly related to the political bias of the liberal republican conception of society. In the words of the journal’s board of directors:

our greatest concern, the most intimate interest, the most intense yearning of the people who advance unassumingly along the blazing paths of evolution, driven by the victorious liberating ideas in consequence of the disappearance of the throne that has crumbled (A ESCOLA, 1906, year 1, n. 1, p. 1)⁷.

The board of the journal was in tune with the republican ideals. It is worth noting that it was common, in the republican period, for the elite to defend education for all. In this case, the journal expressed the interests of the Curitiba intellectual elite in relation to the organization of Public Instruction in Paraná.

The journal A Escola was created by the Public Teachers' Guild of Paraná. Its first printed issue occurred in February 1906, and its publications lasted until December 1910. The journal was printed by the steam typography Impr. paranaense, located in Curitiba. In the first publication of the journal, on its first page, one can find the purpose for which it was created:

Ella comes not only to fill a gap but also to deal sincerely and unabashedly in favor of the progress of the public instruction of our future our future public instruction, in daily and fruitful toil. To make the teacher, to endow the school with a staff equipped for the edifying and glorious challenges of the intelligence, - This is fortunately the almost unanimous concern of the people of Paraná, maximé of the prominent depositary of local public power. (A ESCOLA, 1906, year 1, n. 1, p. 1).⁸

According to the News section of the journal itself, it appears that Dr. Sebastião Paraná was the main editor of the periodical until June 1906. From August of that same year, Dario Vellozo took over this function, remaining there until the end of the editions, in 1910. As far as the target public is concerned, it was identified:

We sent the first issue of A ESCOLA to all the public teachers and directors of private schools in the State, as well as to many other people. Those who do not return it in time will be considered subscribers. To the members of the Public Teachers' Association the subscription is free. (A ESCOLA, 1906, year 1, n. 1, p. 13)⁹.

Teachers and principals of schools in Paraná were the target audience, but access to the journal, except for the first issue, depended on the payment of a subscription. For those affiliated with the Guild, the subscription was free. To join the Guild, it was necessary to be a teacher and contribute monthly.

During the period of elaboration and dissemination of A Escola journal, the State of Paraná was undergoing transformations in social, economic, cultural, and educational aspects. ^{Bogoni (2018}) places the creation of the Journal in a post-movement period intense as to the need for transformation regarding public instruction. In the period of the journal’s creation, "[...] there was a spread of debates, for the reformulation of education and that the model considered adequate favored projects for the modernization of society" (^{BOGONI, 2018}, p. 38)¹⁰. It was understood that instruction would renew society by spreading moral, civil, and patriotic values, in addition to intellectual instruction.

The intellectuals who published in the journal started from the premise that the good education would be the one under the North American and European molds. Its writers considered that "education would be one of the keys to moral, intellectual and material progress of the population, which had already begun with the establishment of the Brazilian Republic" (^{MARACH, 2007}, p. 22)¹¹.

Education would enhance the formation process of the new society because it was seen as the path to social transformation. ^{Zanlorenzi (2014}, p. 15) asserts that A Escola Journal "fulfills the function of dissemination of an educational ideal in a period in which education would assume a central role, at the beginning of the twentieth century¹²."

The discourse that, through education, it would be possible to solve the problems of society was common; for this, it would be enough to instruct and educate the people, remembering that instruction and education were based on intellectual, civic, and moral content. An exacerbated belief that disregarded social transformations in a profound way. About this exacerbation of education, ^{Fausto (1978}, p. 97) considers that this factor is common in societies dealing with the "passage from the commercial agrarian system to the industrial urban system"¹³.

The society was seen as backward in relation to existing resources, considering that, since the 19th century, the need for the renewal of the teaching method was directly related to the economic process. With that, it was evidenced the interest for the formation that worked with both "the conquered progress and the social determination that is intrinsic to it" (^{VALDEMARIN, 2004}, p. 134)¹⁴. Thus, there is the materialization of confidence in scientific knowledge and progress through the insertion of everyday resources in the school environment. Resources that, although not used by everyone, should be taught, because they were considered symbols of civilization. Among these symbols, ^{Valdemarin (2004}) mentions:

the electric locomotive, the telegraph, the ship, the photograph, the bicycle, chloroform, the elevator, refrigeration, dynamite, the dry cell, the periodic table of elements, the telephone, the principle of vaccine, the linotype, the gasoline-powered automobile, the rubber tire, the railroad, [...] the electric light. (^{VALDEMARIN, 2004}, p. 134)¹⁵.

Although this set of symbols of civilization was not used by everyone, it started to be part of the school context. It was necessary to know how to make use of its senses, as well as to go through the republican process, since man already had dominion over nature and lacked dominion over the human mind, which should:

be disciplined, regulated, so that it would understand "correctly" the knowledge coming from it: it is necessary to educate children from an early age, with a content that unveils the possibility of mastery of nature, by means of a method that affirms the obtaining of this result. (^{VALDEMARIN, 2004}, p. 134)¹⁶.

The teaching strategy considered to be the most efficient for the civilizing process was the Intuitive Method. In this sense, through this article, it is possible to explain what and which conceptions of the Intuitive Method were disseminated by the collaborators of the journal A Escola (1906-1910).

Conceptions between the Intuitive Method and the Lessons of Things

To analyze the term Intuitive Method present in the pages of A Escola Journal (1906-1910), it was necessary to look at the types of publications that composed this pedagogical press, since each publication has specificities and objectives that differ them. ^{Marach (2007}) points out that he found, in the journal A Escola:

Expressions of opinions, translations of foreign texts, poetry, and other kinds of diverse fragments written by public teachers from Paraná. The periodical also has articles by literati and teachers from other cities, as well as works by students from the Gymnasio Paranaense and the Normal School. (^{MARACH, 2007}, p. 11)¹⁷.

The organization of the journal was composed by sections that were repeated during the five years of its elaboration and divulgation, which can be called structuring, being them: Our Journal; Normal School; Biographia; French Contents; Portuguese Contents; News; Official Expedient and Reports. The news sections were divided into sub-themes.

The structuring sections allowed a closer look to observe the different types of publication of the journal. Thus, the following types of publications were delimited: Productions of Primary School students; Children's Songs; News; Reports; Official Dispatches; Portuguese Contents; French Contents; Student Productions; Translations; Announcement of Events; Biographies; Correspondences; Opinions; and Articles.

^{Schelbauer (2003}), when translating excerpts from Buisson's work¹⁸ (1912), emphasizes the conception of the Intuitive Method as a popular method, which proposed to start from intuition as the most natural means of knowledge. This justified the choice of this method for republican education, since one of the ideals of this model of society was to educate everyone, to educate so that citizens would be able to vote and be voted for. As a result of this way of thinking, the Intuitive Method, in the second half of the 19th century, started to be highlighted in educational debates in Pedagogical Congresses and International Expositions. Among the conferences mentioned, Schelbauer points out the 1878 Conference, Conférence sur I' enseignement Intuitif faite aux instituters delegues à Exposition de Paris, because, in this event, Buisson discussed the polemic about the Intuitive Method and the Lessons of Things. The controversy in question stemmed from placing the lessons of things sometimes as a program to be worked on in all disciplines and sometimes as a single discipline. When considering these two possibilities, Buisson criticized the use of the lessons as a discipline, considering that, for him, it should permeate all subjects, as was the case in the United States.

The polemic mentioned above was present in the publications of the journal A Escola, a fact that provides evidence about the conceptions of the collaborators in relation to the use of the Intuitive Method and the Lessons of Things in Paraná Public Instruction. The use of both terms, also present in the journal, demands to list the differences and similarities between them.

^{Valdemarin (2004}) emphasizes that the Intuitive Method has its divulgations supported by other denominations, such as Lessons of Things and Objective Method. By focusing her studies on the Lessons of Things, the author situates the understanding present in the educational reforms created by Leôncio de Carvalho and Rui Barbosa, because the first placed the Lessons of Things as exercises to be taught separately, while, for the second, they should cover all teaching and, therefore, could not have a specific schedule. In the following table, information about the term Lessons of Things present in journal A Escola has been gathered.

The conception of Lessons of Things was placed by the contributors as a separate discipline, and this predominated in the publications of A Escola journal (1906-1910). In turn, the determination of the School Inspector was that, on Saturdays, a teacher, using the last hour of the working period in the school museum, should give his students simple explanations of the Lessons of Things (A ESCOLA, 1906).

In the translation signed by Alicia ^{Moreau (1906}), the term Lessons of Things was used to emphasize that any simple object, such as a stone, could be used by the teacher as "matter" for the Lesson of Things. It is noteworthy that, for the scholars, the simple fact of looking at and describing objects could not be considered learning.

In the opinion issued in 1907 about the Compendium of Pedagogy, we find the Lesson of Things as a subject that, along with others, was part of the teacher education course at the Normal School, a subject that was present in the third year of the course. This reality is close to the conception criticized by Rui Barbosa (1947) that the Lessons of Things should have a specific space in teaching, instead of being the course itself. On the contrary, the bill presented to the Legislative Session of February 17, 1907, in Paraná, placed the Lessons of Things as the "fundamental basis of the entire elementary school" (DIARIO, 1908, year 3, n. 1, p. 18)¹⁹. One assumes the conception that the Lessons of Things should not be considered as a separate content. The fact is that there was no consensus regarding conceptions about the Lessons of Things.

In the discussion on Agricultural Education, published on the journal, the term Lessons of Things was used to justify the need for living teaching, in which students could observe things, know, learn to handle cultivation techniques, and not simply memorize them.

The Intuitive Method was part of the Paraná educational context of the first decades of the 20th century and was also present in the discussions published in A Escola journal. The following table shows the publications that mentioned the term Intuitive Method.

When referring to the Intuitive Method, the contributors to A Escola journal portray a context marked by the conception that the education offered until then was not consistent with the need to form people under the ideals of modern education. Regarding the term Modern Education, the first introductory text of the journal explains the need to "disseminate a solid education, taught according to the prescriptions of Modern Pedagogy" (A ESCOLA, 1906, year 1, n. 1, p. 1)²⁰. About the first initiatives of the Modern School, in São Paulo, ^{Carvalho (2000}) points out that:

As soon as the Republic was proclaimed, the governors of the State of São Paulo, representatives of the modernizing oligarchic sector that had hegemonized the process of establishing the Republic, invested in the organization of a model education system. Thus, the school in São Paulo strategically became a sign of the modern that functioned as a fighting and legitimizing device in the consolidation of the hegemony of this State in the Federation (^{CARVALHO, 2000}, p. 112)²¹.

São Paulo was the state that received investments for the structuring of modern education, which made it a model for other states, including Paraná itself, a place that some contributors to A Escola journal wanted it to be a model state, the "Brazilian Athens". The evidence in the journal, as well as the studies of authors such as ^{Schelbauer (2003}) and Reis Filho (1981), allow us to situate how much education in Paraná was influenced by the model of organizing education in São Paulo.

In this state, the modern school model was based on the "art of teaching". In this perspective, future teachers, through observation, learned the ideal model to teach children, so that when they went to work, they would imitate the methods and practices learned. As a means of watching over and guiding teaching, school inspection was instituted, as well as reports from teachers and principals, aiming to give visibility to the practices considered exemplary. It was considered that the school's main concern should be the:

uplift the character of the child, develop his reasoning, not caring about the memory, filtering in his spirit feelings of piety and prohibition and prepare him the heart to vibrate when necessary, either lamenting the national disasters, or exulting with the triumphs, with the altroses conquests. (A ESCOLA, 1906, year 1, n. 1, p. 1-2)²².

The pages of the journal reflect the anxieties arising from the changing context in which it was in circulation. It is significant to trace some points to understand the relationship between the Modern School and the journal. In Paraná, especially, the Escola Moderna was a project promoted by Dario Vellozo, considered one of the main promoters of this conception of education, who took advantage of the opportunities to defend the need and importance of a transformation in education. Vellozo justified such conception by his experience and his reflections about his years of performance as a teacher. In his words:

The fruit seasoned in the sun of indefatigable studies, examination of school organizations in the far Asiatic east, Europe and America, in the intention of solving the social economic crisis that looms on the horizons of the Brazilian land, more particularly in the State of Paraná, whose natural resources, customs and orientation I know best. (^{VELLOZO, 1909}, year 4, n. 1, p. 7)²³.

The school was conceived as a means to solve social problems. For Vellozo, the model of education offered, until then, was obsolete and distant from the needs of the context, since the school needed to overcome "[...] the almost medieval teaching, formed only by rhetoricians, metaplysicians, theorists, alien to practice, to work, to life in its most common molds, arms and brains in greater number lacking" (^{VELLOZO, 1909}, year 1, n. 1, p. 7)²⁴.

Being the Intuitive Method the most coherent with the proposal of Modern Education, it appeared in the publications of the following authors: Conego Braga; Julia Wanderley Petrich; Josephina Carmen Rocha; Esther Pereira; Verissimo de Souza; Alicia Moreau; João Podelek Boue; Maria Esther Ferreira de Souza; and Dario Vellozo. It is worth noting that not all of these authors explicitly defined the Intuitive Method, nor can it be said that they all had the same conception about it. However, the definitions found in the pages of the journal contribute to know, partially, how the Method was understood according to the aforementioned contributors.

The term Intuitive Method in A Escola journal had different approaches, which was due to the application or practice of the method, based on the principles of modernization and innovation. This finding can be interpreted, from Valdemarin's perspective, by considering that:

While some authors consider it a general teaching method that can be used for all instructional contents, others consider it suitable only for those contents whose concrete teaching objects, such as drawing, science, elementary arithmetic, etc., that is, contents that enable direct perceptions to the senses. (^{VALDEMARIN, 2004}, p. 171)²⁵.

The different interpretations are also perceived in the speeches of the contributors to A Escola journal. In some passages, one can perceive the diagnosis about the need for changes in the method. In his first article on Syntaxiology, Conego ^{Braga (1906}, year 1, n. 1, p. 6), although not defining the Intuitive Method, emphasizes that he uses it because he disagrees with the way the contents are worked on, that is, the "erroneous, unreasonable, antiscientific and antisyntactic classification of the analysis into grammatical or etymological and logical"²⁶. His point of view is thus spelled out:

There is one thing with which I cannot conform, because it is out of this harmonic concert; against it I try to react by the press, as I have done in exams, in French classes in my charge and I am doing in the fascicles of the monograph on the see in romanic and with my intuitive syntactic method, still unpublished because I lack resources to publicize them. (^{BRAGA, 1906}, a. 1, n. 1, p. 6, emphasis added)²⁷.

The collaborator criticized the methodology used in the schools he inspected, specifically the grammar content, since the grades were made according to officially determined compendia. ^{Braga (1906}) does not mention the compendium in question, but points out that the non-scientific learning of grammar content by the students was not the teachers' fault, since they were obliged to follow the compendium. Based on the possible inferences in A Escola journal, the compendium in question was Grammatica Portugueza, by João Ribeiro, because, in this period, the compendiums were indicated by the Congregation of the Gymnasio Paranaense and the Normal School. Braga's criticism to the officially adopted textbook is evident, as well as his interest in mentioning what he named his own method; it was common, in the republican period, the elaboration of textbooks and manuals based on his own understanding of what the Intuitive Method would or should be.

For ^{Valdemarin (2004}), many of these textbooks and compendia had, on their covers, the term Lessons of Things or Intuitive Method, but their contents were significantly different from a teaching proposal based on the principles of the Intuitive Method.

The different interpretations about the Intuitive Method were visible in Josephina Carmen Rocha's words:

The teaching is intuitive, being given simultaneously to the students suitable for class study, these are those in the Third and Fourth reading book and the most advanced class for which I adapted Gonzaga Duque Estrada's book Revoluções Brazileiras. (^{ROCHA, 1906}, year 1, n. 2, p. 44)²⁸.

Rocha uses the Intuitive Method only in situations where the students already had knowledge to the point of being considered capable. For her, the method would not contribute to the learning of everyone.

Esther ^{Pereira (1906}, year 1, n. 7, p. 123), when making a summary on teaching methods, which was a lesson of the second year of the Normal School, situated that the Intuitive Method would be "based on the teaching of things", pointing out that Pestalozzi understood that the senses should be educated and, soon after, she pointed out that Compayré disagreed, because, for him, the senses should be educated as there was a need. The collaborator allows us to strengthen the conception of the different understandings about the Intuitive Method.

Verissimo de ^{Souza (1906}) proposed the Intuitive Method for history teaching, since he considered that "the teaching of history to children presents multiple embarrassments due to the fact that this subject is one of the most difficult, if not impossible, to adapt to the pedagogical method par excellence - the intuitive one" (^{SOUZA, 1906}, year 1, n. 8-9, p. 140)²⁹. According to this collaborator, it would be necessary to adapt the method to then teach history to children. This idea shows that, in the context experienced by Souza, the method was not part of the teaching as a whole.

Esther ^{Pereira (1906}) lists Pestalozzi as the reference author of the Intuitive Method. Such evidence appears in the following passage:

Intuitive [...] Pestalozzi considered it a method the better the more senses he attracted; he understood that the senses should all be educated at the same time, Compayré disagrees with this opinion, understanding that the senses are educated in proportion to their usefulness and necessity. (^{PEREIRA, 1906}, year 1, n. 7, p. 123)³⁰.

The reference to Pestalozzi made by the collaborator signals the need to educate all the senses at the same time, since knowledge would be acquired through the senses worked on. However, the collaborator poses a contradiction, because Compayré has a different conception; for him, it was not necessary to educate all senses at once. In the words of Esther ^{Pereira (1908}, year 1, n. 3-5, p. 89), "The primordial quality of education is intuition. Applying Pestalozzi's excellent method, the teacher transmits knowledge by exercising and using the children's bodily senses”³¹. ^{Valdemarin (2004}) contextualizes the Intuitive Method as follows:

In the mid-nineteenth century, the intuitive method is understood by its European and American proposers as a pedagogical instrument capable of reversing the inefficiency of school education, which is scored thus: it trains students with insufficient command of reading and writing and with unsatisfactory notions of calculation, mainly because it bases learning exclusively on memory, prioritizes abstraction, values repetition over understanding, and imposes content without examination and discussion. (^{VALDEMARIN, 2004}, p. 103)³².

The author points out that the method has its origins in Germany in the late eighteenth century, and its diffusion in Brazilian territory is dated in the period between the late nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century. This time frame encompasses the period when the journal A Escola was written and published, thus showing that the references to this method that were present in it were part of a national and transnational movement, which defended and disseminated the Intuitive Method.

The Intuitive Method would be good enough with regard to the students' learning process, which, until then, was based on memorization and repetition of content. The new challenge was to consider that the relationship with the world through the senses would place education:

as an act of civilization and human emancipation, since reason, properly shaped, would create the possibility of building a harmonious society, mirroring the process obtained in the understanding of the knowledge process. In this perspective, experience and reason establish themselves as instruments for understanding the natural and social world, becoming intelligible to man, and education becomes the means for developing the natural talents of individuals, used both for their own benefit and for that of society. In this conception, the educating man is understood as being able to conduct himself making use of his rational capacity that reverts in benefit to the collectivity through economic and political participation. (^{VALDEMARIN, 2004}, p. 35)³³

The idea that the senses reflect a new possibility of relationship with the physical and natural world demanded the need for education of the senses, because although they are the starting point for knowledge, it is necessary to develop the ability of observation. Thus, the development of the Intuitive Method stems from the need to:

transfer to real individuals - children - abstract propositions elaborated on generic improprieties. It is precisely in this attempt that it is elaborated and becomes a very vigorous current in the education of the senses and for education by things and by experience. (^{VALDEMARIN, 2004}, p. 39)³⁴.

The publications of the journal A Escola discuss the term Lessons of Things, in this way, when preparing an opinion about the Compendium of Pedagogy written by Dario Vellozo, João Podelek ^{Boué (1907}, year 2, n. 6-7, p. 72-73) presents the parts that compose this compendium, explaining that the "3ª lesson" of the "third year" was composed by "Lessons of Things". A Project of the State of Paraná, dated February 19, 1908, in its Art. 3, establishes that:

The executive power shall commission annually or biannually, for a fixed time, up to 3 teachers of primary instruction, of the most skilled to apt, to study the organization, disciplines and methods adopted in the States, where education is more modern and complete, in order to make in the schools of the various school districts of the State lectures, prayers on the most recommended methods of teaching, followed in the most advanced centers, showing at the same time how all the subjects or disciplines of primary, intermediate and complementary elementary education should be taught practically, intuitively and synthetically, especially what is the easiest and most rational method of teaching reading and writing, and what are the advantages of the lessons of things, the fundamental basis of all education and elementary instruction. (PARANÁ LEGISLATIVE CONGRESS In: A ESCOLA, 1908, year 3, n. 1, p. 15-16)³⁵.

As for the relationship between the term intuitive and lessons of things, ^{Valdemarin (2004}) emphasizes that the Intuitive Method has its publications supported by other denominations, such as lessons of things and objective method. In the reality of Paraná, the repetition of the Intuitive Method/Lessons of Things can be understood as a result of a determination of the Regulation of Public Instruction of the State of Paraná, under Decree No. 93, March 11, 1901, whose 1st paragraph of Article 40 states that:

The method adopted in this school will be intuitive, and its teaching program will consist, in general lines, of lessons of things, family conversation, singing, first essays of drawing, reading, rudiments of calculation, recitation and manual exercises, alternating mental teaching with physical exercises, which will consist of games, toys and gymnastic movements. (PARANÁ, 1901, p. 95-96)³⁶.

As ^{Frizzarini and Silva (2016}) explain, Rui Barbosa, Brazilian representative of the Intuitive Method, "[...] defends the lessons of things as a methodology that should cover the entire program, i.e., it would be a general process that all disciplines of elementary instruction are subordinated" (^{FRIZZARINI; SILVA, 2016}, p. 15)³⁷. However, in a special way, in the Compendium of Pedagogy authored by Dario Velozzo, the term "Lessons of Things" appears as a "lesson", and not as a proposal that would permeate all the contents.

The Intuitive Method and the structuring of public instruction in Paraná

In the context of the First Republic, in order to organize public instruction in Paraná, discussions took place, and decrees were instituted. In keeping with republican ideals, the journal A Escola published the laws, decrees and regulations on instruction issued by the state government. In the journal, there is reference to the Teaching Regulations for Public Instruction in the State of Paraná, a document approved by Decree No. 93, of March 11, 1901. The content of this regulation dealt with primary, normal and secondary education, with a description of the subjects to be taught at each level. According to art. 40 of this regulation, the Intuitive Method would be adopted at the Maternal School Model. In this institution, practical exercises would also be done for the students of the Normal School.

The 1901 Regulation also established that teachers should, at the end of each year, send a general report and a map of their school's attendance. It also stipulated that the books adopted should be approved by the Congregation and by the Director General of Public Instruction. The members of the Congregation were chosen by the Director General. The timetable and days of operation of the schools were also part of the Regulation.

The set of determinations present in the Regulation demanded many actions and behaviors from the teachers, and those who did not perform their work according to the legal requirements would suffer penalties ranging from removal to schools far from the center to dismissal, both situations were published in the Official Expedient, present in the first years of the journal A Escola. This action can be understood as a way to intimidate teachers and force them to comply with the Regulation.

To inspect and supervise the work developed by teachers, the position of school inspector was created by Law n. 640, of March 30, 1906. The Decrees mentioned in the journal present the following names to act in the function: Mr. Ismael Martins for the public schools of the 2nd circumscription; Dr. Francisco Xavier Teixeira de Carvalho for the 1st circumscription; Mauricio Tavora for the judicial district of Espírito Santo de Itararé (A ESCOLA, 1906)³⁸.

As we can see in the journal, the School Inspection set the determinations to be complied with by the teachers, as was the case of the charge that, on Saturday, the teachers should take their students to the museum to teach about natural history and the "Lessons of Things" (A ESCOLA, 1906).

The journal evidences the charge regarding the creation of schools, since, with the Regulation of 1901, this function was of the State, but in practice it did not happen to the satisfaction. With this, when dealing with school buildings, the text published by the direction of the journal noted the reality of the Province of Buenos Aires, in which the director general of schools assigned funds for the construction of school buildings, thus denouncing that:

It is buildings of this kind that we need. Our schools unfortunately, with rare exceptions, function in private rooms, almost all of them small, lacking light, air and other elements necessary to the place, where dozens of children remain every day for 5 hours determined by the Regulations for learning. (A ESCOLA, 1906, year 1, n. 3, p. 62)³⁹.

There was the use of a model to denounce the lack of a propitious environment for Paraná's education, since the time determined for the permanence of the child was being fulfilled. The excerpt makes one understand that even though school was mandatory and necessary for the education of the republican citizen, the lack of schools was an existing problem since the 19th century, reaching the beginning of the 20th century without a solution.

The journal reported that, by means of Law n. 667, of April 4, 1906, a promiscuous school was created in the Novo Mundo neighborhood, in Morretes (A ESCOLA, 1906). Thus, it is not denied that there was the creation of schools, but the quantity and conditions of these did not correspond to the desired obligation.

Still on the reality of the schools, the publication of Decree 179 met the demand of the population of the village "Pacotuba", in the municipality of Tamandaré, because the school of this village was without a regular teacher, so it was not working (A ESCOLA, 1906). There was a need for the population to demand that the State fulfill its duty by guaranteeing the operation of the schools.

Decree No. 52, February 7, 1906 dealt with the Regulation to govern, provisionally, the Commercial Institute, and that, through this institute, would seek to prepare the citizen with a significant knowledge, which could only be learned in this school (A ESCOLA, 1906). Attached to this institution, it was created, through Law No. 632 of March 14, 1906, an Agronomic Course, in which teaching should be based on practice. In this perspective, Art. 1 established that:

Art. 1 The Executive Power is hereby authorized to create in this city, attached to the Commercial Institute, an agronomic course, comprising in addition to the practical study of the languages taught in that establishment, a class of Agronomy and corresponding practical exercises, which will take place in a field of experiences. (A ESCOLA, 1906, year 1, n. 3, p. 64)⁴⁰.

The intention is to make the teaching practical, with approximations to daily life, preparing the citizen through scientific knowledge to explore the abundant natural resources of the period. The education of students and the professional training for practical life were united.

As a process for the attempts to organize public education in republican times, the reform of the Regulation was present in the pages of the journal A Escola. To this end, in 1907, a commission was formed to organize a project. From this commission, the Regulation of Public Instruction was created by Decree 479, of December 10, 1907:

§1º The government, for the execution of this Law, will order the confection of the classes, disciplines, materials, officinas, cultures, etc., etc., and everything that has immediate relation as free and compulsory education, as well as with the organization of practical professional-modern education. (A ESCOLA, 1908, year 3, n. 2, p. 17)⁴¹.

There was an interest in training schoolchildren based on practical teaching, that is, a necessary element for the concretization of the modern school. The regulation of public instruction came and went, and this process was criticized by those who bet on changes in education through legislation. For critics, it was unacceptable to be in 1910 using the regulation of 1901, since two other regulations had been drawn up in the meantime, lasting an average of four months.

The 1909 regulation, the best that Paraná had, adopted advanced measures of high pedagogical value, and for this reason was considered superior to what Paraná could do, and was revoked. Paraná is really an unfortunate land, and will never have the importance of S. Paulo and many other states of the Republic. Here it's all about politics and nothing else. (A ESCOLA, 1910, year 4, n. 4-6, p. 260)⁴².

The comings and goings of the Regulation were due to political issues and thus reinforced the instability in public education in Paraná. The publication, signed by Diario da tarde (1910), criticizes the attitude of Xavier da Silva, then state president. For this press, his friendship with Arthur Cerqueira harmed education, because, for Cerqueira, the 1909, the regulation could not continue in execution and, with this, the governor, with the support of Congress, revoked and determined the return of the 1901 Regulation. This attitude of the government was understood by the Diario da tarde (1910) as proof that the administration of Paraná was disoriented (A ESCOLA, 1910, year 5, n. 4-6, p. 261).

The reports were part of the legal attributions to be fulfilled by teachers, being foreseen in article n. 62 of the Regiment of Public Instruction (1903) and should be delivered annually to the Director General of Public Instruction of the State of Paraná in the reports published in the journal A Escola. In these reports, information is given on the physical conditions of the schools, the materials present there (with emphasis on the materials that were lacking), data on the number of students attending the schools and the numbers of those who dropped out. The Intuitive Method was present in these reports.

The teacher Julia Wanderley ^{Petrich (1906}), reporting on the teaching method to be practiced, states that this should be according to the needs of each student, that to be useful it should be based on the "laws of psychology", adding that it should vary according to each student's degree of advancement. In her classes, she sought to "make the explanations given intuitive and clear", saying that the Intuitive Method was advantageous for teaching the most "backward" students. She was against teaching based only on memory, she said that the lesson should start from concrete elements, always from the simplest to the most abstract. This evidence connotes the use of the Intuitive Method, although it was not understood as possible to be taught to everyone. It is worth noting that when this teacher said that the method used should be based on the laws of psychology, the Intuitive Method was present in this idea, which would place the student as the subject of learning, and not a mere recipient of content. Petrich cited Pestalozzi, an 18th century thinker, as a reference.

^{Valdemarin (2004}) theorized the Intuitive Method and its methodological prescriptions and, with that, highlighted that the method referred has its bases in empiricism. He further argued that:

The great conceptual revolution triggered by empiricism finds its terrain of application par excellence in the field of education, because if the human mind is a "clean slate" and if all moral and intellectual values come from sensitive experience, it is possible to intervene and direct human development according to the new ideal type forged by the scientific revolution, by capitalism, by the new political model. (^{VALDEMARIN, 2004}, p. 36)⁴³.

In the reports of the teacher Josephina Carmen Rocha (1910), the attractive teaching was present, as well as the concern with useful teaching, which should be from simple to compound, because, thus, the student would have a taste for teaching.

In turn, commercial teaching took up space in the journal A Escola. This teaching modality was organized in three years, the first two being a preparatory course; and the last one, the higher education course. The course syllabus was as follows:

Preparatory course- Calligraphy; Portuguese-exercise of orthography and writing; foreign languages; principles of accounting; arithmetic; elementary algebra; elementary geometry; notions of physics and chemistry; history and geography; drawing. Superior Course- Calligraphy, foreign languages; accounting; mathematics applied to commerce; study of merchandise; analysis and manipulations; studies of transportation; commercial tools; commercial geography; history of commerce, maritime and industrial; financial and customs legislation; economics; drawing. (A ESCOLA, 1096, year 1, n. 1, p. 29)⁴⁴.

The course program, especially in the last year, as can be seen, was based on work-oriented subjects. This fact sought to prepare people for the needs of the market, which demanded agents with modernizing knowledge, because:

The progress of sciences, the improvement of commercial tools, the extraordinary development of the means of transportation, have brought about a true commercial revolution. The relations between people made increasingly easier, by the resources of civilization, continually provoke excessive competition. (THE SCHOOL, 1906, year 1, n. 1, p. 29)⁴⁵.

For the modern school, a project was designed with the following structure: primary school divided into four classes, the 4th being the complementary course; secondary school with three years; special school with three years. In this structure, when the students finished the primary course, specifically the complementary course, they would be able to attend secondary school, which, in turn, would prepare them for whatever branch of the special course. These courses were based on the defense of practical teaching (A ESCOLA, 1907).

The formation of citizens demanded professionals who were formed within these molds. The Normal School Paraná had its own compendium, written by Dario Vellozo, with lessons distributed over the three years of the course. The teacher should base his/her work on scientific knowledge.

However, both the training offered at the Normal School and the admission to it without a preparatory course were targets of criticism. For Georgina ^{Mongruel (1907}), the training at the Escola Normal was far from the practice and, to justify her criticism, she compared the theoretical learning to the detriment of the practical with learning to swim only by reading books and justified her understanding on:

'the deplorable effect that it causes in the education of our young children, the entry into practical life of normalists recently left the School, the head full of theories, but completely not able in the application of the methods of the diversity of intelligences that are entrusted to them. (^{MONGRUEL, 1907}, year 2, n. 8-9, p. 115)⁴⁶.

Mongruel mentions and presents the model of the European Normal School, considered by her as pertinent, because, next to this school, there was an application school, in which, after observations, the students would apply their classes under the evaluation of the pedagogy teacher. The focus on observing and reproducing, based on the practice of the teacher in charge, would be fundamental for the application of the teachings transmitted to the classes.

^{Macedo (1907}), when criticizing the structure of the Normal School program, stated that the practical pedagogy course was "fruitless and somewhat defective". As a suggestion, Macedo suggested that the course should be increased by one more year, arguing that, with this, the students would be better qualified to work in the teaching profession. For Macedo, the Normal School was important, as it was through the teaching profession that the popular school would be disseminated. Thus, the Normal School should be organized in a practical way, with useful knowledge.

Practical training and useful knowledge were the intensifiers of criticism of the Normal School hitherto organized, and this fact allows us to understand the tendency to break with the models implemented during the schooling of the imperial society. The ideas of practical and useful teaching were directly related to the Intuitive Method, but the literature discusses the impediments to turn this training into the precepts of the method, since not all teachers of the normal schools had their education based on the Intuitive Method.

Regarding teacher education, there was a conception that normal schoolteachers would be the best prepared to act according to the principles of the Intuitive Method. It was necessary to transform society, and the path chosen by the Republicans was education. To this end, it was necessary to focus on the education of teachers and on how to teach, thus recognizing the power of the Normal School as the most appropriate space for training and the Intuitive Method as an effective strategy for the training of masters responsible for the formation of citizen labor for the urbanization process, which was gaining strength.

As a characteristic of the attempt to promote instruction via the Intuitive Method, pedagogical compendiums were organized and disseminated. In the Paraná context, specifically in Curitiba, the Pedagogical Compendium was in charge of Dario Vellozo, because, according to the speeches of his peers, he was the most prepared person for such a function. This Compendium was published, for the first time, in 1907, after several requests from other intellectuals related to education in Paraná. Through the journal A Escola, we can see the requests for this Compendium, by means of a legal requirement, so that it was obligatory to the Normal Schools.

Final considerations

The transformation of the society would demand a transformation in the schooling process in the reality of Paraná State in the beginning of the 20th century. In this sense, the pedagogical press occupied a fundamental place in the production, mediation, and circulation of the debate of pedagogical propositions linked to the reforming actions of education that would impact on the formation of citizens. This was noticeable considering that the journal A Escola (1906-1910) published the regulations of public instruction, teaching programs, teachers' reports, teacher education conditions, pedagogical compendiums, among others. The agenda disseminated and promoting the debates was also anchored in the pedagogical renewal that would be given by the Intuitive Method.

In A Escola journal, its collaborating authors recorded evidence of appropriations of the Intuitive Method and the Lessons of Things. Thus, the teaching of schoolchildren was defended, aiming at practical contents related to the needs of the new society, marked by urban, commercial, and industrial dynamics and the need for skilled labor for them, as well as the maintenance of the Republic as a political organization. The journal was directed by republican ideals and, in this way, defended school education as a means for the transformation of the Paranaense context, which needed to be modernized.