Introduction

The time frame chosen for this article composes the period known as the "Glorious Thirty (1945 - 1975)" (CANARY, 2008). In these decades, as in almost the West, the demand for more primary schools in the Brazilian capital became a reality as Rio's families pressured the government for more vacancies in the official network of the municipality. In the same year that the Heitor Lira Normal School (ENHL) was created, the Pioneers of New Education² published a new Manifesto (1959) in which they again defended their basic ideas, among which were the decentralization of education systems and the expansion of the primary public school to serve the population. For this, new training schools for middle-level teachers (normal schools) should be created in different parts of the city, including the suburbs³, as in the case of the populous Penha neighborhood.

This situation preceded the fact that until 1959 there were only three school units with the Normal Course in the Federal District (DF). The well-known Institute of Education (IE), in Tijuca, the Normal School Carmela Dutra (ENCD), created in 1946 without administrative and pedagogical autonomy (aspects that changed from 1953), in Madureira, and the Sarah Kubitschek Normal School, which had autonomy already established in Article 11 of the Law that created it (PREFEITURA DO DISTRITO FEDERAL, In this context, Manuel Bergström Lourenço Filho, signatory of the Manifesto of the Pioneers of the New School of 1932, took a position on the expansion of the education network in df. Aware that it was necessary to increase first the number of teachers formed in official units, Lourenço Filho, subscribed by Anísio Teixeira, precepted the number of four units for the Federal District, according to the zoning of the city (Creation of New Normal Schools, 1957, p. 4) - [DIÁRIO DE NOTÍCIAS]. Thus, the study of the emergence and history of this fourth unit emerges as the main problem to be addressed in this text.

The justification for the investment in the studies of this unit is not only due to the homage of a normal school to the founder of the Brazilian Association of Education (ABE). We also consider the importance of studying its past due to the fact that its installation represents the expansion of the training of primary teachers in the city, as well as a clear tipping point on the democratization of access to education in the interior of the capital of Brazil.

As we will see later, there was haste and ambitions involving the expansion of the Normal Course in the city. On the other hand, there were also groups committed to keeping teacher training as centralised as possible. With this, the unit took two years to be installed, as it was in the middle of a social space of disputes, with groups acting according to their different interests and measuring forces to achieve their goals (^{BOURDIEU, 2011}).

This is what I believe to express when I describe the global social space as a field, that is, at the same time, as a force field, whose need is imposed on the agents involved in it and a field of struggle, within which agents face each other, with different means and purposes according to their position in the structure of the force field thus contributing to the conservation or transformation of its structure (^{BOURDIEU, 2011}, p. 50)

The own interests or provisions of actions are also called habitus by that author, as they illustrate the purposes for which groups form and conflict within the field. In this research, although it is evident the position of each social group by its behavior and performance in the discussions on the construction of new school units, for this study, it becomes more important to address the claims of these groups (^{BOURDIEU, 2011}). It is precisely in the clash between the positions of the different groups involved, as we will see in the next points, that the limits of the structure of educational care to families in Rio de Janeiro are formed. Thus, in agreement with what Pierre Bourdieu writes, it is worth noting that sometimes these clashes between the groups aim to preserve the structure in which the field is supported; at other times, clashes can change such a structure and transform the field.

Given the fact that there is no other academic article on the history of the unit, and that we find few sources with which to work in the collection of the school itself, we evaluated different methodologies for conducting the research. We realized that the main means in which these disputes became evident, was that of newspapers. This mass means of communication, far from any neutrality, mirrored the positions of the different groups on the creation of more normal schools in the city. In this sense, we seek to study, as pointed out by ^{Pasquini and Toledo (2014}) and ^{Luca (2005}), the audiences for which the daily circulations of newspapers used in the research were used, in addition to investigating the links of newspapers with politicians who worked in the city.

Education and the press, two elements apparently unrelated, but which reveal themselves as structural units that allow the analysis of different groups representing certain power forces, whether expressed in political, religious or educational issues (^{PASQUINI; TOLEDO, 2014}, 265).

In this sense, we worked to achieve what was behind the opinions, the headlines and the choice of images published in five newspapers in Rio: Correio da Manhã, Diário Carioca, Diário de Notícias, Jornal das Moças and Última Hora. All the journals addressed for this research are originally cariocas and of intense dissemination during the period in which Rio de Janeiro was the capital of Brazil, also functioning in later years, when the city was elevated to the status of State of Guanabara. The research was carried out on the website of the National Library (http://bndigital.bn.gov.br/hemeroteca-digital/), in the journal sector, taking into account the proposed chronological section and under the simple entrance keys of 'Escola Normal Heitor Lira', 'Escola Heitor Lira' and 'Escola Normal', between January and April of this year.

Naturally, the first criterion of choice of journals was the daily circulation in the Brazilian capital. Among the many options, we still use as a criterion for the choice of journals the fact that they show themselves as opinion newspapers, that is, without dealing exclusively with the publication of official documents of the municipal secretariat or other instances of power. Thus, opting for newspapers that gave openness to their reporters to expose their opinions - and their interests - we conducted the research initially in the Morning Mail, which returned 70 citations. Then, Diário Carioca, returned 62 citations, diário de notícias, 314, jornal das Moças, 38 and o Última Hora, 71. Given this large number of citations related to the theme, we decided to bring to the article only the reports that mentioned the campaign to create the unit, in addition to the campaign for the expansion of teacher training through the capital. Being analyzed one by one in order to find elements that would bring to the public the performance of the different groups involved with the school installation process.

In addition to the main objective of rescuing the history of the ENHL, thanks to the aforementioned theoretical and methodological references, we were able to also address the political actions within the educational field that resulted in an increase in the number of normal schools in the suburbs of the city of Rio de Janeiro, at the time the Federal District and then, state of Guanabara, between the 1950s and 1960s. The combination, therefore, of the concept of Field and the methodology of analysis of journals clarified the intentions of the actions of individuals and groups in the period.

Public policies for the suburbs: decentralisation of primary teacher training

Ibge demographic data for the 1940s showed that 48.8% of the total population in the State of Rio de Janeiro lived in the city of Rio de Janeiro (IBGE, 1940). In 1950, this index reached its highest point, reaching 50.9% of the total population of the State. This percentage showed a small decrease in 1960 (49.3%), but, still, it was the second-highest index, which tended to decrease in the following decades when the city became the state of Guanabara (1960 - 1975), and the capital of the country was transferred to Brasilia. In absolute numbers, the same study shows that the population growth of the city almost doubled in this period, since in 1940, the number of cariocas was 1,764,141, and that, in 1950 and 1960, these numbers reached 2,377,451 and 3,307,163, respectively (IBGE, 1940; 1950; 1960). The evaluations on these numbers engendered discussions about the need to increase the number of primary schools within the Federal District, which naturally led to the discussion about the capacity of primary teachers to train the municipal network.

The city's population growth was moving toward the suburbs, more specifically towards the North and West Zones. These regions, historically, were - and still are - impoverished regions of the city, when compared to the South Zone, where neighborhoods with the most expensive square footage, such as Leblon, São Conrado, Flamengo, Botafogo and Lagoa, are located. On the other hand, until the 1940 census, the madureira neighborhood in the suburbs was considered a "remote suburban area and difficult to access", and everything that went inside the city was considered a rural area. Bringing a teacher training school to the region meant that the educational policy implemented by Mayors Francisco Negrão de Lima (1956 - 1958) and José de Sá Freire Alvim (1958 - 1960), both appointed by the President of the Republic (all of the Social Democratic Party - PSD), would also serve as public, social policy and promotion of their own careers (^{LIMA, 2017}; 2021b).

Therefore, it makes sense to think that population growth in certain regions should be accompanied by the installation of more primary schools, which, in turn, required increased training of primary teachers to attend primary schools. However, any proposal to take normal schools to the interior of the city of Rio de Janeiro, led to disputes, because the decentralization of teacher education, a theme advocated by the intellectuals of the New School since the 1930s, had not yet become a consensus in the late 1950s.

In defense of their ideals, the schoolnoists published their proposals in the newspapers of the time, both in the 1930s, at the time of the dissemination of the Manifesto of the Pioneers of New Education, and in the 1950s, when they carried out the dissemination of the Manifesto of Educators: once again convened (^{BONTEMPI JR., 2021};^{XAVIER, 2007}; 2015). Although they did not always exert pressure on the parliamentarians and governments, the prestige of these intellectuals, that is, the place of speech of these thinkers, had a special weight on the political environment, considering the influence they exerted on voters when it came to education (^{BOURDIEU, 2011}). Arising from this influence of thought, the construction of the image that the country's ills would be redeemed by investing in an education for the entire population, fostered the bet that primary teachers would be the best channels oftransformation of the Brazilian socialbeing. The dissemination of scientific values, urbanization, development and modernization of the country along the lines of what was observed in the United States and European countries became the end of a rainbow initiated at school and mediated by primary teachers (BOMENY; COAST; SCHWARTZMAN, 2000; LIMA, 2021).

Not by chance, it was the suburban social classes of Rio de Janeiro that best ideologically incorporated the hope that school was the path to social change. The political discourse of modernization and industrialization through education directly reached the families of the lower classes, because they alluded to promises such as: a) development, which built the idea of endless increase in production capacity and the emergence of a series of technological innovations; (b) social mobility, which, accompanying productivity growth (mass productivity) would also increase wage, consumption and employment growth; c) equality, which with the general growth of the economy would cause, from the State, the distribution of wealth could be carried out in such a way that everyone achieves the same way of life as the bourgeois class (CANARY, 2008).

By assuming these provisions and inculcating these thoughts, the growing population of the suburbs began to intensify the charges for more school units in order to fulfill the "promises" of change. However, discussions on the continuity of the decentralization of teacher education faced resistance. Initially, politicians pointed to the creation of more units, but the activities of New Scholars continued to point to the need for greater schooling of the people (^{BOURDIEU, 2011}).

In the works of the signatories of the Manifestos of 1932 and 1959, Anísio Teixeira and Lourenço Filho, we find similar forms of proposals for the theme of decentralization of education systems. Anísio (1996) marked that decentralization could provide better adaptation of municipal networks to local cultural identities. In this way, regional characteristics would be respected, also facilitating the requirements coming from the Union. Centralization would be a factor of isolation from public schools, according to Teixeira, because the social nature of education lacks the effective participation of communities.

Lourenço Filho (2007), in turn, wrote about the importance of discussing what should or should not be decentralized, highlighting countries with the same profile as Brazil. Operating under the federative pact, Brazil should have federal entities legislating in a supplementary, but autonomous way. Thus, Lourenço Filho advocated some level of centralization in the Union, but also pointed to the creation of their own education systems that would work in municipalities and states with financial cooperation, structuring and federal planning, articulating this specific service to be provided to their populations.

Within the scope of the municipal administration, the positions of Anísio Teixeira and Lourenço Filho had a direct effect on public policy. It was about democratizing the teacher training course by taking it towards the interiors, the suburbs, the poorest areas. Thus, in February 1957, the directors of the Existing Normal Schools in the Federal District, respectively, professors Mário Paulo de Brito (IE) and Antonio Antunes Júnior (ENCD), among other teachers, were then invited to discuss a new opinion in which Anísio Teixeira and Lourenço Filho described the need to install four more Normal Schools for the full care of the population (Creation of New Normal Schools, 1957, p. 4) - [DAILY NEWS]. In a report published in the same month, another journal pointed out the results of the meeting:

The normal education in Rio goes through such an intense phase, that it is demanding the creation of new schools, in order to meet more rigorously the needs of this student youth that grows and increases each year. The lack of educational establishments for the teacher training course is a pathetic reality, since we only know of the existence of the Institute of Education and Carmela Dutra. There are limited numbers of vacancies in these two establishments, and this restriction causes, every year, a panic situation among young women who aspire to a noble career. In addition, the aggravating circumstance of suburban students struggling with another serious problem is added: transportation. [...] Facing this serious problem of teaching in the Federal District, the competent authorities begin to express interest in the solution of this aspect that involves the entire population of Rio de Janeiro that starts from the following basic principle: the more schools we have, the greater the number of teachers to strengthen primary education, which lacks this specialized human material. Therefore, the solution of a problem of such a nature is directly linked to another of equal value. By overcoming one obstacle, we'll be practically overcoming another. The reflection of the lack of standardized teachers lies logically, in the lack of specialized schools for their training (Sic) (Creation of the Normal School of Campo Grande, 1957, p. 12-13) - [JORNAL DAS MOÇAS).

The report, published in greater depth in the Young Women's Journal, had its reason for being. The journal that carried the name of its target audience had national circulation and dealt with the themes of the role of women in society, restricting female participation to domestic activities and marriage most of the time (^{ALVES; et. al.; 2016}). In this sense, considering that the municipality had decided that the Normal Course would be exclusive to the female public since the 1940s, the readers of the Jornal das Moças were potentially candidates or were already students of the official normal education (^{PASQUINI; TOLEDO, 2014};^{LIMA, 2017}).

Although the newspapers at the time rushed to report the installation of at least one new unit, the result of the meetings of the Teachers Commission, led by the director of IE, Mário de Brito, frustrated the parents of the candidates of the interior of the city. Brito, who had been opposed to the creation and autonomy of new normal schools, such as thej.R. Normal School of the Suburbs(ENCD), confirmed his position of keeping teacher training in IE centralised (^{LIMA, 2016}). A few months after those meetings, he publicly stated that there would be several "drawbacks" in the process of expanding the number of normal schools.

In conclusion, Dr. Mário de Brito said that the Technical Council and the Congregation of the Institute of Education are radically opposed to the creation of new normal schools, unless they are preceded by accurate studies (Technicians against the creation of New Normal Schools, 1957, p. 7) - [THE NIGHT].

Faced with this setback, the group with real interest in education as a social promotion came on the scene: the parent commissions of future students of normal schools. Influenced by the role the school could play in their lives, families organized themselves into commissions that had the unique role of pressuring public managers for more schools and opportunities for their daughters.

Parents' commissions: "Only solution: more schools"

The government of Juscelino Kubitschek (1956 - 1961) had constituted in this period its Goal Plan whose motto was 50 years in 5. However, education appeared in the plan as the last of its priorities and focused only on mid-level technical training, following its national developmental model. Although the spheres of power are different, understanding the federal project was to understand the paths taken by the Federal District, since the President of the Republic chose the mayor of the city and often also chose the secretaries of each folder. Thus, mayors Francisco Negrão de Lima (1956 - 1958) and José de Sá Freire Alvim (1958 - 1960) maintained determined apathy towards education for the city's suburbs, neglecting the creation of new schools at least at first (^{LIMA, 2017}).

In this context, concerned about the little advance in educational investment, illustrated by the fact that the draft law of Guidelines and Bases of Education had dragged on since 1948 and by the evident disprestige of the theme within the JK government, the schoolnoists published the "Manifesto of Educators: once again convened" in July 1959 (^{AZEVEDO; et. al, 1959}). This manifesto ratified the action of these thinkers, after twenty-seven years of the publication of the Manifesto of the Pioneers of New Education (1932) (^{XAVIER, 2015};^{SANFELICE, 2007}).

School equipment, still very simple and mediocre, then, consisting of two superimposed and disjointed systems: the popular (primary, normal and office education), whose bases were only beginning to launch; [...] The primary school teacher (and even the high school teacher), besides being generally poorly prepared, either from the cultural and pedagogical point of view, is mostly constituted by lay people (2/3 or 3/4 according to the States); it has no salary consistent with the high responsibility of its social role nor does it have any means for the periodic review of its knowledge.

[...] the extreme deficiency of resources applied to education (and, as one of us has already written, "there is no cheap education as there is no cheap war"); the excess of centralization; the deintersism or, as the case may be, the intervention so many disturbing people of politics; the lack of public spirit, the dilettantism and improvisation combined, in this complex of fators, to create the situation to which public education has swoveed in thecountry (sic) (Grifo nosso) (^{AZEVEDO; et al., 1959}, s.p.).

The positioning of the pioneers of new education reverberated the popular voice that was already heard in the newspapers for more vacancies, for more education. Since the mid-1950s, parent associations have been formed in order to expand the access of children and young people to the educational network of the Federal District.

Goal to achieve

[...] We are certain that, in a few days, the A.P.A.I.E. [Association of Parents of Students of the Institute of Education] will present to the Secretary General of Education and Culture an appeal towards and creating and new normal schools in the Federal District, in order and that, next year, the deplorable scenes of admission exams interspersed with vertigo and fainting will not be repeated, the disappointment of mass distastes [...] (Goal to achieve, 1955, p. 4. Our griffin.) - [DIÁRIO DE NOTÍCIAS].

The educational field of the Brazilian capital was publicly shown as the environment of tensions and interests. Between 1957 and 1959, the action of parents who wanted to secure a place in the formation of teachers in the city began to take effect. The families of approximately 650 surplus candidates in the competitions for normal schools, despite Mário de Brito's taxing tone that the Congregation and the Technical Council of IE were radically opposed to the creation of new units, managed to put on the agenda again the discussions on the opening of more schools.

SINGLE SOLUTION: MORE SCHOOLS

A committee of parents of candidates approved but not used in the School [Normal] Carmela Dutra is maintaining understandings with Mayor Negrão de Lima and members of the City Council in order to find a solution to the problem of the lack of vacancies in the municipality's colleges. [...] The committee of parents, on the other hand, decided to contact Councilman Frederico Trotta and Múcio de Carvalho who are ahead, in the Federal District Chamber, in the fight for the construction of new normal schools in the city (Only solution: more schools, 1958, p. 5) - [ÚLTIMA HORA].

The performance of Rio's newspapers was decisive in this process of political pressure. By giving voice to the population and spreading their aspirations, it brought to the fore the evidence that the school had become a necessity not only of the more affluent classes. Thus, even before the publication in the periodicals of the manifesto of July 1959, in January of that same year, the Morning Mail had already reported to its readers that the resources for new normal schools existed, making it clear that what was missing was political action.

THE NEW NORMAL SCHOOLS - AID GRANTED

Aiming at improving the network of normal schools in the country, INEP sent in the last three years, to nineteen Federation units, the allocation of Cr$ 120,292,284.00, according to data provided to the report by the Education Statistics Service. This plan aims to collaborate with units of the country in a position to form a primary teaching according to the real needs of our population. [...]

APPROPRIATION BY STATES

According to the statement framework drawn up by the FINANCIAL COLLABORATION PROGRAM OF INEP, in 1958, the Federal States and Territories benefited were the following [...] Federal District, 4.5 million [...]

FROM THE FEDERAL DISTRICT TO ESPÍRITO SANTO

For the financial year 1959, now started, only eleven Federation units presented balance, with the Federal District being the vanguard, with forty million cruises [...] (The new normal schools - aid granted, to this end, to nineteen units of the federation, 1959, p. 4) - [CORREIO DA MANHÃ].

Sensitive to the interest of the masses, Councilman Miécimo da Silva, known as the councilman of the water spouts introduced articles in the project that became Law No. 906 of December 16, 1957. The project that had passed on the Committee on Economics and Finance said in its caput: "Determines the distribution of free lots to slums, solves the problem of slums, and gives other measures" dealt with almost all of this theme. In addition to the articles in which he created the Normal School of Campo Grande, only in one was it possible to find the reference to what would be a school in the Leopoldina area: "[...] Art. 15. Two more Normal Schools are also created, one in the south and the other in the suburban area of Leopoldina. [...] with the direction subordinated to the General Secretariat of Education and Culture [...]” (PREFEITURA DO DISTRITO FEDERAL, 1957).

The full installation of the Ignácio Azevedo do Amaral Normal School (ENIAA) in the richest area of the city occurred more quickly. It was about meeting the interests of the middle classes and fractions of Rio's elites who still thought about training their daughters as teachers, even if it meant neglecting a much larger number of education stakeholders in the suburbs (^{LIMA, 2020}). However, the same cannot be said of the Leopoldina area unit (ENCICLOPÉDIA DOS MUNICÍPIOS BRASILEIROS, 1960; LIMA, 2020).

Normal School Heitor Lira: "in race"

In 1959, the Secretary of Education of df Américo Jacobina Lacombe spoke about Law No. 906/57. Through the newspapers, Lacombe announced that he had lowered Resolution 34 of October 15, 1959, order of October 14, 1959, case 3005-519/59 (ENHL Collection. Unit History, 1963, s.p.). After years of dragging on rumors of new normal schools to improve care to the neighborhoods of the suburb, and with the opinion of Mayor José Joaquim de Sá Freire Alvim, the two units mentioned in article fifteen of Law No. 906/57 were created (PREFEITURA DO DISTRITO FEDERAL, 1957; ^{LIMA, 2017}).

Lacombe chose October 15, 1959 to announce the creation of a teacher training school in the Leopoldina region. The secretary aimed to take advantage of Master's Day, also choosing to grace the Brazilian educator Heitor Lira da Silva, born in 1879 and died in 1926. The honoree, Heitor Lira, graduated from the Polytechnic School of Rio de Janeiro and worked in the workshops of Jundiai, of the Companhia Paulista de Vias Férreas. He was director of electrical affairs at Barra do Piraí, becoming director of the Central Railroad of Brazil. He taught for more than 10 years in the chair of Materials and Construction Resistance, being also professor of the Architecture Course of the National School of Fine Arts (^{AFONSO; KEYS, 2015}).

Involved with education, Heitor Lira was the initiative to create the Brazilian Association of Education (ABE) on October 16, 1924, becoming its first President. Friends of Heitor Lira, such as Levi Carneiro, Cândido de Mello Leitão, Delgado de Carvalho, Branca de Almeida Fialho and, as a result, Mário Paulo de Brito, agreed to participate. At the time, Mário de Brito was professor of geometry at the Polytechnic School and the Normal School of the Institute of Education. It might seem ironic to see the future director of EI being among the participants of the EAB in the 1920s, because this institution had a decentralized structure, offering full autonomy to its state sections. But this may be explained by the fact that, despite The Lyre's enthusiasm, his friends did not believe in the success of his venture. Despite the distrust of friends, on the occasion of the first year of the founding of the EIB, Lira would have said: "Nós esperamos vir a formar um núcleo poderoso no seio da sociedade brasileira" (^{SCHWARTZMAN, 1982}, s.p.).

We look forward to forming a powerful nucleus within the Brazilian society.

In the early 17th century, a Portuguese captain named Baltazar de Abreu Cardoso had been bitten by a snake on his land, where there was a large rock where he regularly climbed up to look at his plantations. In asking Our Lady for help, Baltazar built a chapel on top of this rock in gratitude for the grace received. The great stone, as it was known, gave rise to the word 'Penha' (whose meaning is 'great rock mass'), a place that came to be frequented by pilgrims and religious in gratitude for the graces achieved. Gradually, by religious influence, the farm Of Our Lady, where Penha was, increasingly frequented by the faithful, gave way to the name Our Lady of Penha:

Considering the convenience of expanding the school capacity of the Federal District, giving prompt implementation to the measures required by said Law;

Whereas the meaning of the tributes on The Master's Day justifies the commemoration of a practical order, in order to promote the functioning of another teacher preparation school for the primary teaching;

Considering the high value of the figure of Heitor Lira and his remarkable performance in the history of national education solves;

Art. 1 It is provisionally installed in the building of the Conde de Agrolongo school, located at Rua Conde de Agrolongo, 1.246, Penha, the Normal Heitor Lira school with the same purpose and organization of the normal course of the Institute of Education in the form of the Organic Law of normal education "Dec. Law No. 8,530 of January 2, 1946”.

Art. 2 The new normal school, in the case of the provisions of the internal rules of the Institute of Education, approved by the Dec. 13.192, of 22-3-56, as available by Art. 187 of the same regiment with reference to the Carmela Dutra Normal School (ENHL Collection. Unit history, 1963).

At the time of the ENHL's installation, Secretary Lacombe also stressed to the newspapers that the creation of the new unit was a feat that should serve the growing population that was looking for school benches. But his words also gave an account of political service to the demands of suburban families who believed in the promises of growth, development, modernization and equality that would be offered by the attendance of citizens in schools.

THE NETWORK OF NORMAL SCHOOLS IN THE CITY IS EXPANDED - One of rio's oldest aspirations is undoubtedly that which concerns the imperative need to expand the city's school network. With the ever-dizzying increase of the population [...] this has undoubtedly been one of the main objectives of the current municipal administration's action program, to meet the complaints of the people and the real needs of teaching. The time has come to make these aspirations a reality by establishing and installing two more Normal Schools, the "Ignácio de Azevedo Amaral" in the South Zone, to be organized by Professor Olga Dias and "Heitor Lira", in the Leopoldina Zone, under the care of Professor Anísio Junqueira. [...]The creation and installation of these two new Normal Schools will increase the number of teachers to meet the real needs of primary education in the capital, so sacrificed by the deficiency of teachers, because, despite the large number of normalists graduated from the Institute of Education and the Carmela Dutra Normal School, it is still a long way from the reality [...] (The network of Normal Schools in the City is expanded, 1959, p. 2) - [DIÁRIO CARIOCA].

Initially, the unit would be destined to meet the Leopoldina Zone, which at the time was between the neighborhoods of Caju to Cachambi (^{BORGES, 2007}). However, there was difficulty in finding buildings large enough to receive the ENHL, which was still supposed to rely on a primary school for the normalists' stage. Thus, the unit was not installed in the initially proposed neighborhoods, going a little further inland, but still following the same extension of trains and still on the shores of Guanabara Bay. Penha, the chosen place, is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro. Its origins relate to the Catholic faith and the performance of Portuguese military personnel in the region.

In the early 17th century, a Portuguese captain named Baltazar de Abreu Cardoso had been bitten by a snake on his land, where there was a large rock where he regularly climbed up to look at his plantations. In asking Our Lady for help, Baltazar built a chapel on top of this rock in gratitude for the grace received. The great stone, as it was known, gave rise to the word 'Penha' (whose meaning is 'great rock mass'), a place that came to be frequented by pilgrims and religious in gratitude for the graces achieved. Gradually, by religious influence, the farm Of Our Lady, where Penha was, increasingly frequented by the faithful, gave way to the name Our Lady of Penha (PREFEITURA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, s.d.).

Years later, the donation of properties belonging to Captain Baltazar led to the creation of the Venerable Brotherhood of Our Lady of Penha, which demolished the old chapel and built a tower with two bells instead. In 1870, the church was replaced again, adapting to the number of faithful who arrived from different localities. The region was served by sea, penha train station, opened in 1886 and Avenida Brasil, already in the twentieth century (^{FERNANDES, 2011}; PREFEITURA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, s.d.).

The process of occupation of the Penha region had become so strong that in 1920 the Carioca Tannery was installed in the region, increasing job vacancies in the leather business. During this period, as an example of the importance of the region, the church of Nossa Senhora da Penha received new interventions, winning a chime of 25 bells acquired on the occasion of the centenary of Brazil's independence (PREFEITURA DO RIO DE JANEIRO. s.d.).

Despite the development of the region, in 1959, the news about a new normal school and two primary schools also illustrated the lack of in the educational field of the historic suburban neighborhood. "Therefore, the residents of The Penha Neighborhoods, Ramos and surrounding areas are to be congratulated for the substantial increase of their culture campuses: A Normal School and two or more Primary Schools for the early 1960s" (Escola Normal da Penha will operate next year, 1959, p. 7) - [DIÁRIO CARIOCA].

After lengthy and careful studies, it can already be announced today the operation of both [also referred to the installation of primary schools in the region], from next year, in temporary but sufficient facilities, and the Heitor Lira Normal School should be established in the Conde de Agrolongo Primary School Building, the largest capacity in the Penha region and the one that offers better accommodation, with large and comfortable rooms (The network of Normal Schools in the City is expanded, 1959, s. p.) - [DIÁRIO CARIOCA].

In fact, walking access to the population of the surrounding neighborhoods was easy because of the proximity. Despite the choice of the building in a populous neighborhood, the success of the ENHL installation was due to the fact that the unit was installed only nine hundred meters from the penha railway station. The transportation of future teachers arriving at school from other regions, both when the internships of enhl classes, made in primary schools in the interior of the municipality, were facilitated by the use of this modal. Thus, the railroad, previously responsible for the flow of primary genera from the rio sertão for export from the city center, now opened possibilities not only of occupation of areas in the sertão of the capital of Brazil, but also of education for its population.

However, as we stated, the installation of the unit did not happen easily. Only six primary school classrooms were assigned to the new Normal School. In one of the rooms, a makeshift laboratory was installed. Two others were used for the administration of the ENHL. In the first, the principal's office, the teachers' room, the cooperative, the library and the medical office operated. In the second, the secretariat and the warehouse operated. In Augusto Malta's 1934 photograph, we can see the original constitution of the building.

Source: Photo by Augusto Malta. Available em http://portalaugustomalta.rio.rj.gov.br. Accessed day 08.02.17.

Figure 1: Front façade of the Conde de Agrolongo School, Penha, 1934. 

Despite the discourse that the ENHL would function provisionally in the building, the evident decrease in primary school space greatly affected the education of children. This led the Circle of Parents and Teachers of the Count of Agrolongo Primary School to try to prevent the normal school from functioning. Parents and teachers denounced to the newspapers the "harm that children would suffer from the change of regime from two to three shifts" (ENHL Collection. Unit history, 1963). This complaint demonstrated a seemingly contradictory position, but only reflected the fear of the school community in the face of the decrease in vacancies in primary grades, due to the occupation of classrooms by the ENHL.

The newspaper Última Hora, a few years after the opening of the Normal School in Penha, described this tension in the educational field of the city:

In 1959, the Heitor Lira Normal School was created. With that traditional irresponsibility in the Rio administration, they created the school but did not take care of a building for the school. The problem remained until our day, when the Secretary of Education decided to solve it, so to speak, in race. What did you do, then? It simply started to use the Conde de Agrolongo School as the principal of the Normal School. The public school previously operated in 2 shifts, but as there was a need for classrooms for normalists the problem was thus "solved" the children entered the regime of 3 shifts, with only 3 hours of classes and 6 rooms would be aimed at the young people of the Normal School. [...]The normalists continued to occupy the children's living space. That's when they proposed a new "solution": children would be enrolled in private schools as scholarship holders (in this government, surpluses are named after scholarship holders) and new classrooms would be reserved for normalists... Despite so much juggling there was an additional problem. What about the furniture? (How Flexa Ribeiro solved the problem of Teaching in GB, 1962. p. 3) - [ÚLTIMA HORA].

The answer to this last question posed by the newspaper Última Hora demonstrates the way in which the Normal School Heitor Lira was created by the Municipal Department of Education. The furniture and all the most necessary, as a typewriter and mimeograph were loaned by the Carmela Dutra Normal School to hold the first competition (ENHL Collection. Unit History, 1963, s.p). In addition, its creation occurred without being sworn in by a director, with Professor Anísio Junqueira de Almeida, a former professor at ENCD, as the one responsible for organizing the unit administratively and didactically, in addition to answering for it (Escola Heitor Lira. 1959, p. 10) - [DIÁRIO CARIOCA]. In the midst of these conditions of structure was published the notice for the first contest on December 31, 1959, aiming at the creation of classes for the year 1960.

The head of the Normal School Heitor Lira makes known, to those who interest, that will be open, in the Primary School Conde de Agrolongo, street of the same name, in Penha Circular, the registration for the Contest of admission to the 1st grade of the Normal Course, for 1960, from 2 to 12 January, from 11 to 16 hours and on Saturdays from 9 to 11:30, according to the instructions published in the "Municipal Gazette" of 28-12-59 (Official Communiqué of the Normal School Heitor Lira, 1959, p. 1) - [DIÁRIO DE NOTÍCIAS].

It should also be emphasized that in light of the attendance of "Rio aspirations", the effective director of the unit was appointed during the selection process for students of the unit. To fill the position, in January 1960, the lawyer José Bezerra Norões Filho (News of the City Hall, 1960, p. 7) - [DIÁRIO DE NOTÍCIAS]. When taking over the direction of the ENHL, José Bezerra congratulated the residents of the region, but also took the opportunity to position himself in relation to the decentralization of education in the city.

The great Leopoldinense family is to be congratulated. The children of this populous region will no longer waste precious hours to move to other centers to cut themselves for the sublime exercise of magisterium. The Heitor Lira Normal School is, henceforth, the point of convergence for the great struggle for the decentralization of municipal education and consequently an initiative of the municipality in meeting the just demands of the people of Leopoldina", professor José Bezerra de Norões Filho, current director of Heitor Lira and battler for 20 years for the progress of teaching in the great suburb (Sic) (Leopoldina and adjacências) told us, 1960, p. 10) - [DIÁRIO DE NOTÍCIAS].

The inauguration of the ENHL was held on March 26, 1960, also at the same time that the competition was held. The contest approved and enrolled 107 students. A small number at first sight, given the needs of the Federal District, however, reasonable if we consider the occupation of a school with children's furniture (^{LIMA, 2017}). With the pedagogical and administrative autonomy attributed to ENHL, it was evident that the performance of the group of parents who pushed for more school places, alongside educators who postulated the decentralization of teacher education changed the educational field of Rio de Janeiro, making it more democratic (^{BOURDIEU, 2011}).

The unit founded his Orfeão under the name Lucília Villa-Lobos in 1960, the same year he created the Guild Edgard Sussekind de Mendonça. The adopted symbols also followed the pattern of the other schools, including the logo in the form of a rand with the initials of the unit, being responsible for its creation professor Albertino Fonseca. The ENHL Anthem was composed by musician and teacher Olintina Costa. Among his verses, we find: "[...] In the study we seek strength / Cultivate, reflower the reason / And the mission of educating the child / We tax real vocation!/ [...] We triumph in the close struggle/ shining virtue and instruction⁴”. They were references to what was expected of education not only for the country, but also for the families of the suburban neighborhoods served.

The definitive state of the day; 11 years later...

With regard to the place of office, however, the unit remained for another two years precariously accommodated in the building of the Conde de Agrolongo Primary School. As the unit grew in number of students, from three classes in 1960 to eight classes in 1962, the space problem became impossible to solve within that elementary school. The move to a new building, however, had taken place under different circumstances, since the city of Rio de Janeiro had ceased to be the capital of Brazil and became the State of Guanabara (1960 - 1975). At the head of the executive of the new state was the journalist Carlos Lacerda, former owner of the newspaper Tribuna da Imprensa.

A historical opponent of Lacerda and the Press Tribune, the newspaper Última Hora took advantage of the rivalry to denounce in a headline that Penha had neither a primary school nor a Normal School (LEAL, s. d.; ^{LUCA, 2005}; ^{PASQUINI; TOLEDO, 2014}, ^{BOURDIEU, 2011}). The report said that while the children were being displaced to receive scholarships in private units, normalists had to sit in primary school chairs to attend classes. The newspaper also accused education secretary Flexa Ribeiro of lying, due to some suspicious research favoring him, stating that the population believed that he would have solved "the problem of public school in the state of Guanabara" (How Flexa Ribeiro solved the problem of Teaching in GB, 1962, p. 3) - [ÚLTIMA HORA]. Naturally, such a complaint ended up attacking Carlos Lacerda (National Democratic Union - UDN), who assumed the top job of the executive of the newly created State of Guanabara, but pleaded for the head of the federal executive in the next elections (^{MOTTA, 2000}).

With a view to paving his candidacy for president in the future, Lacerda tried to react to the last minute's denunciations. The Secretary of Education Flexa Ribeiro announced a few days after the report that ENHL would move to a new building, built on the corner of Rua Engenheiro Moreira Lia, no. 54, with Guará Street. In this way, the number of vacancies in the Normal School would be doubled, while the children would return to their unit of origin, and the Circle of Parents was again satisfied (^{LIMA, 2017}). The newspaper Última Hora, in turn, ignored the performance of the governor and the secretary of education. In his report, he celebrated the change and increase in vacancies for teacher training in the state of Guanabara as if the conquest were his.

“Rio, 14 June of 1962.

Dear journalist IB Teixeira.

We, parents of students of School 1-17 (Count of Agrolongo) have seen by the present make public our gratitude for having V.S. lawyer the cause for which we fight so much, that is, to defend the childish interests harmed by the ineptitude of the rulers.

Fortunately his 9/6/62 report was the warning cry to which many others responded, forming such a strong jail that it led the authorities to a decision.

The Normal School Heitor Lira will be transferred to a nearby building, thus solving ours and the problem of normalists, both poorly accommodated.

On 12/6/62, therefore, three days after the publication of its column the School received a visit from Governor Carlos Lacerda, Professor Flexa Ribeiro and Professor Antônio Carlos do Amaral and some deputies. We then had the news that cheered us so much. [...] It could be 10 signatures, and our gratitude would be the same. But there were 107 parents of the children of the Conde de Agrolongo School who trusted our Aflito River [newspaper column Última Hora] (School 1-17, 1962, p. 3) - [ÚLTIMA HORA].

During the transfer to the new provisional facilities of the ENHL, on June 25, 1962, Lacerda highlighted increasing the vacancies for Normalists in the unit, although he said that this would not yet be the definitive building of the Normal School of Penha. Even so, Lacerda did not pass up the opportunity to make the event a stage to stand out politically. The images below were not published in the newspaper Última Hora, which in the past had belonged to Lacerda and still supported him politically. These images were found in the collection of the General Archive of the City of Rio de Janeiro, and were not classified within the collection of Carlos Lacerda itself. The existence of these photos suggests an official clique, with chosen angles that favor a possible presidential candidate in the coming years, as we have already pointed out. In the images, it is possible to see Lacerda speaking and even going through in review, as if the normalists of the ENHL were his guard (^{MAUAD, 1996}).

Source: General Archive of the City of Rio de Janeiro.

Figures 2 and 3 Inauguration of the ENHL, on June 25,1962. 

In the same research on images of such inauguration, we also find the moment of raising the flag. Lacerda appears among military, authorities of the Department of Education and the school community of the ENHL.

Source: General Archive of the City of Rio de Janeiro.

Figure 4 Governor Carlos Lacerda at the inauguration of the ENHL (June 25de 1962). 

Despite Lacerda's promise, the enhl's definitive office was not inaugurated in his administration. The image that gave continuity and paraded importance to the education folder was not real in the following months, appearing only as a temporary piece of propaganda.

Photography is two-dimensional, flat, with colors that do not reproduce reality at all (when it is not in black and white). It isolates a certain point in time and space, resulting in the loss of the procedural dimension of the time lived. It is purely visual, excluding other sensory forms such as smell and touch. Anyway, the photographic image does not have any characteristic proper to the reality of things (^{MAUAD, 1996}, p. 3).

Thus, the candidate Lacerda supported to succeed him in the government of the state of Guanabara, in the elections of 1965, was precisely the Secretary of Education Flexa Ribeiro. The propaganda that Flexa Ribeiro would have solved the problems of education in Guanabara was not corroborated by the population, because the candidate elected was Francisco Negrão de Lima (PSD), seven years after having already been governor of the Federal District. In the same year he faced the largest educational protests, including the death of high school student Edson Luís de Lima Souto, he fulfilled his opponent's promise and inaugurated the building that would become the definitive head office of the ENHL, on December 26, 1968, eleven years after the approval of Law No. 906/57 and nine years after the installation of the unit.

Source: Available at http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digital/. Accessed day 08.02.17.

Figure 5 DIÁRIO DE NOTÍCIAS. Penha wins new Normal School. 27 Dec. 1968. p.2. 

Final Considerations

In the course of the text, we recovered the history of creating the ENHL. We approach the relations between the educational field and political actions with different interests that resulted in the expansion of teacher education between the years 1950 and 1960 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. In achieving our objectives, we concluded that the proposal to create the Heitor Lira Normal School arose in a historical period in which the population growth of the Federal District was evident. We also concluded that the process of modernization and development that the country was going through converged for this event. It is also worth mentioning that conflicts involving different educational projects since the 1930s were still alive, leading the entire process of expansion of the city's public school system, as a real field of disputes.

The installation of the unit in the Penha neighborhood represented an important step towards the democratization of education in the suburbs of the city. The choice of the neighborhood, in addition to serving families who wished to have their daughters in the Normal Course, represented special political attention to the poorest region of the city, even if motivated by electoral factors.

As a result of this study, we point out that it is worth discussing whether the opening of more normal schools was able to maintain the quality of teacher education. However, this is a search theme for another time. For now, we stress that despite the clashes and differences regarding public school projects, the evidence is that there was no concern of the official bodies with the structure in which the unit should operate.

The school was established by law in 1957, inaugurated in late 1959, and its classes began in 1960 in a clearly precarious manner. As one of the most traditional training schools for normalist teachers in Rio de Janeiro, it is surprising to note the real importance given the structure of training of primary teachers in the city. After all, the ENHL received its final head-to-head only in 1968, that is, eleven years after it was announced.

With a past of great importance for the field of the history of Rio's education, the Escola Normal Heitor Lira continues to train teachers to work in the early years of the city's primary education. It still operates in the same neighborhood and in the same building to this day, although it changed its name in the 1980s to Heitor Lira State College.