Introduction

In Rio, we should be the hosts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Yes, Yes! No one on the boat. Our messages on the plane were intercepted. Telephone. We are told: “Retreat, the revolution will burst here”. And the next day, a radio received on the ship, informed us that the government was overthrown. This sound of small ‘grains’ is what can be expected when traveling through the Americas (^{Ferrière, 1931}, p. 90, our translation, emphasis added)¹⁷.

[...] And when the ship leaves the dock

And you suddenly notice that a space has opened

Between the wharf and the ship [...]

(^{Pessoa, 1972}, p. 315)

Finding the capixaba active school commented by the Swiss educator Adolphe ^{Ferrière in the journal Pour l’ère nouvelle, in 1931}, aroused our interest. Moreover, it has been curious that, in the midst of the New School reforms carried out in several Brazilian states, Ferrière has set up the teacher training program conducted by the paulista Deodato de Moraes - in the context of the implementation of the active school in the state of Espírito Santo - between the better regarded of his time: “[...] among the best projected ones that exist” (^{Ferrière, 1931}, p. 88, our translation)¹⁸. After all, despite the ocean that separated Ferrière’s view from the reforming experience in Espírito Santo - clearly filtered by the disseminating interest of the New School ideary of the French periodical¹⁹ sponsored by the International League for New Education -, the positivity of the highlight is intriguing given to the small and little politically influential state of Espírito Santo.

In the wake of the meeting on the pages of the French journal, we investigated networks of sociability (^{Sirinelli, 2003}) based on Attilio Vivacqua and Deodato de Moraes, respectively as secretary of public education and director of the main spaces for teacher training in the field of the capixaba education reform. As we shall see, Sezfredo Garcia de Rezende, Vivacqua’s advisor, was also part of these networks, and in 1932, together with him, came to sign the Manifesto of the Pioneers of New Education. From the perspective of Sirinelli, the definition of Vivacqua, Moraes and Rezende as intellectuals is sustained both by their involvement in the production and dissemination of knowledge and ideas around the active school, as well as by the political and pedagogical action carried out in the sense of dissemination and to intermediate its institution in the Espírito Santo schools (^{Sirinelli, 2003}).

Initially, it should be taken into account that the Swiss educator’s complimentary evaluation was based on another article published in this same issue of the journal in which Moraes (n.d) wrote about the Higher Program of Pedagogical Culture (CSCP), which he had created, directed and taught with the objective of preparing teachers who would act in the dissemination of the principles of the active school in educational institutions of Espírito Santo. In addition to the program designed for this course, the description covers the Active School of Rehearsal (later called the Brazilian Active School), instituted as an experimental space of the lessons taught to the teachers in formation. ^{Moraes (n.d.}) reports this experience, held in Espírito Santo, in an interview with the Brazilian Journal of Education (Revista Brasileira de Educação), whose content, translated into French, won the pages of Pour l’ère nouvelle, together with the article by Adolphe Ferrière. Finding Moraes - a central character of the reform of the capixaba teaching, according to the principles of the active school - and the local education taken as reference, in the pages of this French periodical, instigated us to know networks of sociability woven around the active school of Espírito Santo.

In principle, Ferrière joins Moraes’s critique of classical pedagogy, whose error would be “[…] to regard human intelligence as a conglomeration of faculties capable of developing separately, [forgetting] […] that the human being is a member of a collectivity” (Moraes, apud ^{Ferrière, 1931}, p. 85). Also, the critique of Moraes (without date) to the ancient psychology (l’ancienne psychologie ie), originally published in the Brazilian Journal of Education (Revista Brasileira de Educação), gains space in the text of the Swiss thinker:

The psychic world is not a grouping of innate faculties that can be developed by proper exercises, nor a complex of intertwined and interdependent factors, but a bundle of special impulses whose truly unconscious background affects our daily life, our character, our judgments, our conduct (Moraes, apud ^{Ferrière, 1931}, p. 85-86, our translation)²⁰.

At the end of the quotation, the following comment emphasizes Ferrière’s agreement with Moraes’s ideas: “We could not say better. And the consequences that the author draws from these principles to criticize the old school are as eloquent as convincing as a geometrical theorem” (Ferrière, 1931, p. 86, our translation)²¹. Based on Moraes’s description (n.d) of the educational reform in Espírito Santo, Ferrière reproduces part of the report presented by Vivacqua, secretary of the Instruction of Espírito Santo, in which he emphasizes the enthusiasm of capixaba teachers and their commitment to the educational cause:

In the first place, as a teacher orientation, there was an intense propaganda of the guidelines and processes of active education, having found in this preparatory phase, ‘enthusiastic reception on the part of the state magisterium’, whose intelligence and advance, along with their acknowledged love to the cause of education, ‘ensures success for the government’s initiatives’ (^{Espírito Santo, 1929}, p. 86, emphasis added).

Probably, teacher training understood as a condition and as a guarantee of the success of pedagogical renewal was the main point of convergence between the three authors. Ferrière praises the centrality of teacher training in the conduct of changes in the field of education: “[...]in fact, it is in the preparation of teachers that, in Brazil as in other places, it is the ‘key’ to all reform. With it ‘success is assured’, without it, it is ‘irreparable chaos’” (^{Ferrière, 1931}, p. 88, our translation)²².

In Espírito Santo, the emphasis on teacher education has resulted in the dissemination of a “[…] systematic and rigorously scientific culture” [which] can serve as a basis for the active school” (Moraes, apud ^{Ferrière, 1931}, p. 88, our translation, emphasis added)²³, based on knowledge of pedagogy, psychology, didactics, hygiene and also social issues. In this way, the CSCP was designed to train technicians who mastered educational biogenetics, without whom “[…] it would be impossible to put into practice any educational plan” (Moraes, apud ^{Ferrière, 1931}, p. 88, our translation)²⁴. The technical, systematic and scientific training of these professionals included lessons from “[…] pedagogical anthropology, human anatomy and physiology, experimental psychology, psychotechnics, some notions of psychoanalysis, didactics, biogenetic principles of the active school and social issues” (Moraes apud ^{Ferrière, 1931}, p. 88, our translation)²⁵.

In addition to the emphasis on teacher preparation, expressed in the course, Moraes (n.d) highlights Vivacqua’s intention to print a Brazilian physiognomy to the active school. On his own terms, the capixaba reformer believed that

The ‘Active School’ as it is practiced in Europe, where it originated, in order to attend to an anguished circumstance of the European moment, would not fit, fully adapted, in the current Brazilian moment, worked by such a strong and ‘manly tendency of Brazilianness’. In the national interest, it was necessary to modify it by providing it with all the innovations capable of intelligently interpreting the ‘Brazilian social needs’ (^{Vivacqua, 1929}, p. 8-9, author’s emphasis)

In view of the ‘Brazilianness’ desiderata pointed out by the secretary ^{Vivacqua (1929}), we problematize the networks of sociability²⁶ involving Moraes, Ferrière and Vivacqua in the local constitution of the active school from what the Swiss educator calls “[...] national synthesis of applications derived from the principles, ‘true everywhere and always, of the one and universal science’”(Ferrière, 1931, p. 89, our translation, emphasis added)²⁷. Despite approving the possibility of the ‘national synthesis’, Ferrière criticized nationalist sentiments combined with the new school, especially when in his evaluation the “[…] exaggerated nationalism of certain teachers went too far and bordered on the comic” (^{Ferrière, 1931}, p. 889). Therefore, between the ‘universality’ of pedagogical science, the feelings of ‘Brazilianness’ and the colors of the nationalist spirit, we question the design of the capixaba active school woven into networks of sociability.

Scientific pedagogy, nationalism, Brazilianness and teacher training: guidelines for the active school in Espírito Santo in networks of sociability

In describing the program of educational reform instituted during the administration of Aristeu Borges de Aguiar (1928-1930), Moraes speaks of the young blood that encouraged the renewal of local education; highlights the expansion of school attendance that would reach 50 thousand students for a population of 600 thousand inhabitants, at a time when Espírito Santo had taken the “[...] resolution to improve its teaching methods, transforming its school according to their needs and endowing it with all the innovations capable of representing with intelligence the social spirit of Brazil [...]” (^{Moraes, 1931}, p. 96).

Fulfilling his electoral promise, Aguiar handed over the Secretariat of Public Instruction to Vivacqua, who led a broad educational reform guided by the principles of the active school, which, as we indicated earlier, intended to print shades of ‘Brazilianness’ (^{Vivacqua, 1930}). For him, it was a question of integrating the active school into the progress of the State, giving it a “[…] strictly scientific and especially social basis’, with a characteristic ‘Brazilian physiognomy’ […]” ^{Moraes, 1931}, p. 96, emphasis added). In addition, the secretary of public instruction understood the capixaba educational program as “[...] the solid foundation of a ‘singularly patriotic’ work [...]” (^{Moraes, 1931}, p. 96, emphasis added). It is also pointed out the centrality attributed to the formation of teachers for pedagogical change, in harmony with the thinking of Ferrière and de Moraes.

In the reform of teaching in Espírito Santo, Moraes directed the Pedro II Normal School, the Higher Program of Pedagogical Culture and the Active School of Rehearsal²⁸. Coming from São Paulo, he circulated extensively in educational events, in which he debated ideas of the New School; according to ^{Monarcha (2009}, p. 147), he was the “[...] lieutenant of Vivacqua [...]” and “[...] surely one of those who best expressed the spark to be scattered [...]” across Brazil.

Another sparker was the carioca Garcia de Rezende, the fourth person identified by us in the composition of networks of sociability woven around the educational reform of Espírito Santo. In Espírito Santo, his work as a teacher at the Gymnasium of Espírito Santo, school director, school inspector, editorialist, journalist and editor in chief of Morning diary (Diario da manhã), accredited him to organize and head the Cultural Cooperation and Extension Service (SCEC). In 1921, he was one of the founders of the Espírito Santo Academy of Letters. Between 1928 and 1930, in the company of Vivacqua, he visited São Paulo, where he collected “[…] data for the implementation of the new educational methods that he intended to bring to the state of Espírito Santo” (^{Carvalho, 2007}, p. 100).

In the Brazilian cultural scene, Rezende showed keen interest in the modernist movement. In his memoirs, he narrates an encounter with Oswald de Andrade and Tarsila do Amaral, coming to associate the active school of Espírito Santo with Anthropophagy. ^{Soares (1998}) attributes to this approximation “[...] at least part of the theoretical support to give the Active School ‘a colorful and Brazilian face’” (^{Soares, 1998}, p. 85, emphasis added), since Vivacqua and Rezende wanted to participate in the third phase of the modernist movement, thinking of instituting the Active Anthropophagic School in Espírito Santo. In the publications of Vivacqua, however, we do not find direct references to the anthropophagic movement. However, we have identified an ambiguous notion of ‘Brazilianness’, positioned between nationalism, patriotism, and the affirmation of locally situated social issues.

In the educational reform investigated in networks of sociability, Vivacqua stood out by the political-administrative action; Moraes, for the scientific-pedagogical orientation; and Rezende, for the work of diffusion and circulation not only of the political-pedagogical project of the active school of Espírito Santo, but also of the ideal of modernity that would move it. To this construction was added a fourth voice from the other side of the Atlantic: Adolphe Ferrière, a notorious international articulator of the renewed pedagogy movement that had reached Espírito Santo.

With this in mind, we cross the texts signed by Moraes on the reform of education in Espírito Santo - L'École active brésilienne d'Espirito Santo - and by Adolphe Ferrière - L'Éducation nouvelle au Brésil - with the compendium Pedagogia scientifica, written by ^{Moraes (n.d}), whose title identifies part of the program of studies of the CSCP in Espírito Santo, writings of Rezende and Vivacqua, legislative documents, government reports and articles published in national periodicals.

In our analysis, we understand the capixaba experience as a wharf - at the same time a point of arrival and infinite dispersion - through which ideas and practices of the active school circulated and questioned the active school in Espírito Santo in networks of sociability, from the following analytical axes: scientific pedagogy, ‘Brazilianness’, nationalism, and teacher training.

Traits of a political-pedagogical program for the active school in Espírito Santo

The political-pedagogical program that guided the institution of the active school in Espírito Santo is exposed in the work of conclusion of the CSCP by the teacher and journalist from Rio de Janeiro based in Espírito Santo, Garcia de Rezende. The title of the work - Cultural Cooperation and Extension - refers to the body set up to “[...] meet the great and patriotic objectives of educational reform” (^{Rezende, 1930}).

^{Rezende was appointed head of SCEC in 1930}, and it was up to Rezende to disseminate cultural and scientific initiatives in the field of educational reform and to promote national and international exchanges among teachers, students and organizations in the fields of science, the arts and education. In addition, he organized publications on educational and cultural topics, which circulated information on educational legislation, reviews, experiences and news about congresses and essays, aimed at improving teaching (^{Rezende, 1930}).

The thesis defended by ^{Rezende (1930}) is composed of four sections: The spirit of the three civilizations in the work of education; The formation of elites; Modern culture and cultural cooperation; Cooperation and cultural extension service. It begins with a call to the primacy of modern science, industrial production and eugenic ideals in modern societies. In this way, the three axes that support his project for the educational reform in Espírito Santo are defined. He firmly believed that

The modern school, an environment in which the human factor of today’s industrial civilization forms the center of concentrated spirituality, is a laboratory in which the child is studied experimentally. Physically, intellectually and spiritually. The physical culture places the child within the high eugenic ideas, giving it health, muscular potentiality and plastic beauty. (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 5)

On the institution of the active school in Brazil, he postulated that any action in this direction should consider the peculiarities of each people. He concludes, therefore, that “[…] within a general enunciation of a broad cosmic sense, each people organize its own active, private, ‘nationalized’ school” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 7, emphasis added).

The first part of the paper focuses on the ‘spirit’ of civilizations (read European, North American and South American) in the constitution of education. A critic of the conservatism of European civilization, whose modernism seemed strictly literary to him, ^{Rezende argued that European education had a conservative purpose (Rezende, 1930}).

In Europe, “[...] between the Rousseauan doctrine, represented by the old French parliamentarism, evolved in part to capitalist democracy, between Hegelian and Marxist ideologies transformed into the advanced Soviet theory, and the Nietzschean socialism of Germany” [...], he detected “[...] the chaos, the conflict without truce and without purpose of the unconscious forces of disorder [...]” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 10). To the ‘chaotic’ conservatism of the old world, he opposed the transformation of the “[…] mentality of the European colonizer [...]” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 11) operated in North-American society. He proposed the development of the construction force of Brazilians educated according to the principles of modern pedagogy aligned with the industrial civilization of North America. According to him, it was a matter of understanding that the machine - engine of this civilization - would greatly enhance human action.

He thus extolled the practical character of democracy in the United States of America, described as the most “[…] opulent and powerful country in the world [...]” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 11), whose “[...] industrial civilization [...]” was sustained by the “[...] narrowing of man’s affinities with the machine [...]” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 12). In the case of Brazil, he saw “[...] ‘essentially Brazilian needs’ which are in no way connected with the continental mentality” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 13, emphasis added). He believed that “[…] although our civilization shows traces of great originality, we can only develop Brazil, according to the ‘aims and purposes of the industrial cycle’ lived by the violently constructed world” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 13, emphasis added). In his view, the Brazilian Active School of Espírito Santo strengthened this practical and immediate construction intelligence, insofar as it led “[...] Brazilian life, in all its projections, to the school environment, in an exciting work of ‘integral nationalization’” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 14, emphasis added).

Self-proclaimed interpreter of the ‘legitimate ideas’ of the nation, he considered that Brazilians should become developers, “[...] learning at school about the optimism, initiative, the courage of entrepreneurship, the boldness to think, the technique of success, and ultimately the ‘total accomplishment of Brazil’” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p.14, emphasis added). These principles guided, according to the author, the Brazilian Active School of Espírito Santo, whose advance would be to translate Brazilian life into the school environment, “[...] in an exciting work of ‘integral nationality’” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 14, emphasis added).

In the second part, entitled ‘The formation of elites’, ^{Rezende (1930}) argues that despite “[…] cosmopolitanism [...]” and “[...] intellectual refinement [...]” of modern elites, “[...] politically and racially, contemporary peoples [...] are rooted in the concept of ‘homeland’”. In addition, he saw “[…] ‘the nationalist religion’ [...]” spread all over the world when “[...] exorbitant social forces [...]” rekindled “[…] the ‘ardent aims of nationalism’”. In this context, he pointed out that “[...] the peoples were forced to promote the ‘rebirth of the State’”, which should dramatically speed up progress, acting “[…] immediately and dynamically in the bosom of popular masses” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 14-15, emphasis added).

In his view, it was necessary “[...] the net regime of civil dictatorships, the predominance of able elites, by selection, composed of suitable representatives of all social layers” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 16). He defended, in this way, a “[...] government of technicians, of intellectual values ‘patriotically’ determined, of experts, of true exponents of national vitality” ^{(Rezende, 1930}, p. 16, emphasis added). In the capixaba educational reform, Rezende, Vivacqua and Aristeu Borges de Aguiar (1928-1930), presented themselves as young representatives of this elite that is the guarantor of progress. This did not prevent - by the way - that the practice of nepotism (so recurrent in the ‘old’ Brazil to be modernized) would displease local constituencies and undermine the popularity of the young governor (^{Wanick, 2009}).

Culture and cultural cooperation were the following themes dealt with in the thesis of ^{Rezende (1930}, p. 21), which celebrates “[…] the laws of incisive and sharp intelligence that guide the march of [Western] civilization [...]”, showing he was enthusiastic about “[...] the results of human movements directly attached to the ‘superior determinism of evolution, subjecting them to the examination of a clear modern mentality’” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 22, emphasis added). For him, ‘modern culture’ - being “[…] polyhedral and ‘essentially scientific’” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 27, emphasis added) - demanded people capable of understanding and feeling “[...] with clear truth the play of the phenomena of the world [...]” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 26). In this way, the ‘cultured man’ would be “[...] part and all with the same potentiality” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 26).

The author thought of culture as “[...] a continuous work of verification of capacities [which] possessing all the vast ‘plurality of science’ cannot fail to be specialized” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 27, emphasis added). Hence the importance of the improvement of technical skills, since “[…] professional capacity - and intelligence is the best of professions - is the most solid foundation of ‘modern industrialism’” (Rezende, 1930, emphasis added). In this sense, culture would be “[…] an organ of civilization, an apparatus for the propagation of intelligence maintained by the state in order to place the influence of the powerful individualities in the tumultuous and depersonalized bosom of the collectivity” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 28). Cooperation would be the means by which this intelligence would spread. He cites, as examples of cooperative possibility, newspapers, magazines, specialized periodicals, libraries, exchange activities between scientific institutions and even the Cultural Cooperation Service created by the League of Nations (^{Rezende, 1930}).

Inspired by these initiatives, Rezende created and directed in Espírito Santo the SCEC, described in the last section of his thesis. Considered by him as an instrument of intense cultural propaganda, this organ operated in the Department of Education, being responsible for promoting cultural relations and cooperation among teachers, students and scientific, artistic and educational organizations. In the program, which we will discuss later, the Technical and Social Issues unit contemplates this point by focusing on “The organization of national frameworks - The spirit of the active school; and National and international associations of teachers - Congresses and conferences of education - Educational policy” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 16).

From this programmatic framework emerges the question of the education necessary to meet the aims of industrial civilization, the modern state, nationalism and science. ^{Rezende’s (1930}) plan was to organize primary education according to the postulates of the new pedagogy, including scouting, “[…] rational physical culture [...]” and aesthetics of the so-called “[...] active methods [...]” with the aim of forming “[...] the level of popular culture indispensable to the productive classes as efficient factors of progress” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 18). Secondary education was intended for the formation of “[…] human values emanating from the popular masses, as indices of national potentiality, for the constitution of the thinking elites, specialized capacities that will govern the country” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 18).

As observed, Rezende’s program for education in Espírito Santo was based on the legitimating tripod of modern science, US-based industrialism and eugenics. Parallel to the pretensions of universality of the scientific statements synthesized in this triad, we see flags of national distinction and peculiarity (read “essentially Brazilian needs”) in search of “[…] integral nationality [...]” and “[...] the full accomplishment of Brazil [...]” - without forgetting the “[...] ardent aims of nationalism [...]”, “[…] nationalist religion [...]”, in addition to the “[…] patriotically determined intellectual values of experts, true exponents of national vitality” (^{Rezende, 1930}, p. 16). How were these ideals translated in the educational reform carried out in Espírito Santo?

One of these translations, which we will analyze next, was the pedagogical-scientific formulation proposed by Moraes for the educational renewal in Espírito Santo between 1928 and 1930, described in the book whose title is already revealing: Pedagogia scientifica.

Theories of the capixaba active school: for a science of pedagogy

In view of the centrality attributed to the training of teachers in the process of implementing the active school in Espírito Santo, the CSCP functioned in the State Capital, whose program (approved by ^{Resolution 257 of August 31, 1929}) comprised four units: scientific pedagogy, didactics, active school and technical and social issues. In its 403 pages, plus annexes, the book Pedagogia scientifica - written by the founder, professor and director of CSCP, Deodato de Moraes - presents the initial unit of this program.

The question is: what understanding of scientific pedagogy was the teacher training proposed by Moraes? At first, he directs his readers a warning:

Disciple of Pizzoli, Piéron and Fessard, and companion of J. Fontenelle, at the Rio de Janeiro Vacation Program in 1923, it is my sincerity to say that I have taken many notes from the classes of these teachers to develop several points of my lessons (^{Moraes, n.d.}).

Starting with the title itself, we identified the loans announced, since the term ‘scientific pedagogy’, widely used at the beginning of the last century, also called a book published by the Italian physician Ugo ^{Pizzoli in 1909} as part of the Trattato di medicina sociale - sanittà psichica²⁹, directed by Italian doctors Angelo Celli and Augusto Tamburini. According to ^{Monarcha (2011}), in 1914, the presence of Pizzoli in São Paulo, for six months, served to reinforce the use of this text as a reference for pedagogical discussions in Brazil.

According to ^{Centofanti (2006}), Pizzoli (1863-1934) acted in the interface between medicine and pedagogy, aligned with the movement of Italian scientific pedagogy anchored in the positivist side that expressed, above all, a positivist and evolutionist scientific orientation. In Brazil, positivism had followed the Comtean line, with predominantly doctrinal bias. In comparing these two aspects, the author identifies a difference of depth between the thought of Auguste Comte (1798-1857) and that of Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), with important implications for educational practice, since “[…] as in the Spencerian perspective beliefs are acquired and desires are inherited, and since intelligence is the product of refinement arising from sensation, the education of the senses becomes essential for the intellectual development of the individual” (^{Centofanti, 2006}, p. 32).

In the reform of the capixaba education, Moraes attributes to education the purpose of “[...] preparing man for a full life in the broadest sense of the word” (^{Moraes, n.d.}, p. 18). From this perspective, he inferred that

[...] if pedagogy is concerned with this complex process, which is called education and on which the future of humankind depends [...] it must merit on our part all the care and also especially on the part of those who are destined to noble priesthood of directing childhood.

One cannot, at present, conceive of the idea of teacher without the knowledge of the physical-psychic nature of the student (^{Moraes, n.d.}, p. 18).

Contents and methods prescribed for the training of capixaba teachers show the concern with the senses. In ^{Moraes’s words (n.d.}, p. 25), it became necessary to “[…] make the child see better, hear better, feel more perfectly, and then take care of the enrichment of its intelligence [...]”.

The second unit, ‘Didactics’, addressed the following elements: purposes, principles and means of teaching; modes of teaching; teaching methods; forms of education; and teaching processes. The third, ‘Active School’, dealt with theoretical and practical approaches to the subject. Along with the idea of ‘nationalization’ analyzed in this work, we highlight one of the prescribed contents: “The active school and the ‘feeling of Brazilianness - How to organize the Brazilian active school’ - Transitional schools and rehearsal schools’ (^{Moraes, n.d.}, p. 30, emphasis added).

In the fourth unit, ‘Technical and social issues’, we perceive the preoccupation with practical topics related to: training for the exercise of teaching; relationships between school, community and student families; vocational diagnosis of the student; teaching associations, congresses and conferences. The second point of this part of the program - “The first contact of the teacher with the world and the school authorities - Essential qualities of a good teacher - ‘Feelings of Brazilianness’” - reinforces the national question pointed out above (^{Moraes, n.d.}, p. 11, emphasis added).

Because only the first section of the CSCP program has been described, we cannot know how ‘feelings of Brazilianness’ were addressed in teacher training. In the set of investigated sources, however, their presence seemed to us reiterative of a theme valued by the proponents of the capixaba active school.

The emphasis on scientific pedagogy, in turn, indicates the importance attributed to the subject, which cemented the program of teacher training developed in Espírito Santo, aiming at knowledge “[...] of the variations through which the body and the spirit of a child pass” (^{Moraes, n.d.}, p.18). In Moraes’s understanding, without this knowledge the teacher would be comparable to a farmer who ignores the “[...] producing nature of the soil”, a physician who “[...] is unaware of the organs and functions of the body [...]” or to a carpenter unable to identify “[...] different species of wood […]” (^{Moraes, n.d.}, p. 18).

In order to guide the teaching work, he initially proposed the anamnestic examination, which sought to know “[...] information about the family, heredity, environment and life of the student” (Moraes, n.d., p. 26). He also prescribed the physical examination - or “[...] personality static [...]” - aimed at assessing the student’s abilities; the anthropological, to evaluate whether the student, in its “[…] external forms [...]”, follows the average of the “[...] race [...]” to which it belongs; the physiological - or “[...] dynamics of organic functions [...]”; and the psychological, to verify “[...] if the dynamism of the functions of relation develops in a normal way or if there is some serious deviation” (^{Moraes, n.d.}, p. 26).

Science, nationalism and Brazilianness in the capixaba active school of the: sincere adaptations interest us?

In the article published in Pour l’ère nouvelle, ^{Ferrière (1931}) criticized the sectarianism produced around theoretical and methodological ‘truths’ taken as unifying elements on any scale. For him, “[…] nationalism extended to the limits of the continent [would be comparable to] a soap bubble” (^{Ferrière, 1931}, p.89, our translation)³⁰. It is, however, approaching a possible ‘continental identity’, when it perceives psychological affinities between Brazilians and Latin Europeans (for example, the Italian Maria Montessori and the Belgian Ovide Decroly). Contrary to Rezende’s thinking, which criticized the conservatism of ‘old’ Europe and prescribed adherence to US industrial civilization for educational renewal in Espírito Santo, Ferrière believed in the lack of identification of Latinos with “[…] ultra-individualism of the Anglo-Saxon and the ultraconservative of the United States” (^{Ferrière, 1931}, p. 89).

On the other hand, in the set of documents produced to the south, we identified both scientific principles widely recognized by an enthusiastic Ferrière, and strong nationalist ideals that crossed Brazilian society at that time. These patriotic ideals can be read, for example, when ^{Moraes (1931}) situates the program of teacher training in Espírito Santo, in the context of an “[…] energetic and virile effort to awaken the national spirit” (^{Moraes, 1931}, p. 96).

This same nationalist spirit can be read in ^{Vivacqua (1930}), when describing the reform of public education in the State of Espírito Santo. However, the capixaba secretary declares to distance himself from chauvinism, while reiterating the notion of flaming ‘Brazilianness’ of patriotism, which he defined as a growing positive affirmation of the ‘noble’ Brazilian personality.

A strong and fair Brazilian spirit encourages reform. This, when it draws on the experiences of other educated nations and the teachings of foreign pedagogues, is ‘not to do servile work of copying’ other people’s models, but, ‘sincere and reflected adaptation’ to the real conditions and needs peculiar to our social, economic and physical environment and the legitimate tendencies and determinations of our ‘ethnic psychism’. It inspires us with the ‘clear and noble concept of Brazilianness’, in the sense in which we think it ought to be taken, especially in this new age of history, whose horizons are illuminated by the fecund and generous ideology of the Kellogg Pact - ‘Brazilianness expunged from chauvinism, but full of patriotism’, understood as ‘affirmation, increasingly positive, constructive and noble, of the personality of Brazil in the universal cooperation of civilization’ (^{Vivacqua, 1930}, pp. 22-23, emphasis added).

Among the writings of Deodato, Ferrière and Vivacqua, therefore, we observe at least four points of inflection: a) the observance of universal parameters of ‘one and true’ science (scientific rigor); b) adaptation of the New School to local needs and demands (social issue), avoiding the mere reproduction of imported models; c) the universality of the scientific principles between the ‘national synthesis’ and the ‘patriotic-nationalist spirit’ (doctrinal bias); d) teacher training based on ‘scientific pedagogy’ (axis of support for educational renewal). In the intersection of these four vectors, we can see the outlines of the reform of Public Instruction in Espírito Santo from 1928 to 1930, between the importation of pedagogical models, the local appropriations of the active school, or even a possible anthropophagic deglutition, as Rezende imagined. Feelings of ‘Brazilianness’, patriotism, and nationalism, however, produced some ideological convergence in the name of locally diagnosed issues and needs.

This was an important point, since the Brazilian social, political, economic and cultural scenario in the 1920s and 1930s was characterized by the affirmation of values and ideas emanating from intense political and artistic-cultural manifestations marked by the affirmation of nationalism, patriotism and the Brazilian identity - for example, the Modern Art Week of 1922, when intellectuals and artists proposed other historical and cultural narratives and interpretations of Brazil, to the contrary of previous visions rooted in colonialism. There was talk of ‘Brazilianness’, associated with the anthropophagic deglutition of other cultures. In contrast to the Modern Art Week, initiatives such as the Green-Yellow Movement and the Anta Group brought together artists and intellectuals in defense of nationalism and patriotism. Some of them, associated with fascism, started the ‘Integralist Movement’, led by Plínio Salgado.

In the book The active anthropophagic school that the 30 revolution ate (A escola ativa antropofágica que a revolução de 30 comeu), ^{Soares (1998}) associates the educational reform of Espírito Santo with Anthropophagy, pointing out contacts maintained between Vivacqua and his direct advisor Garcia de Rezende, with the modernists. Connected to intellectuals from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Rezende gave visibility to ideas of the anthropophagic movement in Espírito Santo. In July 1929, for example, he published a journalistic article in defense of Anthropophagy, arguing that it should not be seen as a “[...] huge joke in our campaign” (^{Rezende 1929}b, 1). He drew the reader’s attention to the fact that anthropophagic Brazil would be the “[...] Brazil rehabilitated. Without the tired spirit of the old world, Brazil has purposely lost education to educate itself again” (Rezende, 1929b, p. 1). At the end of the same year, Rezende met Oswald de Andrade:

I had written in ‘Morning diary (Diario da manhã)’, of Vitória, an article claiming to Espírito Santo the first act of hostility to the old literary order with the creation of the ‘Active School’. I was invited by him to visit the ‘taba’, then installed in the residence of the painter Tarsila do Amaral, with whom he was married (^{Rezende, 1981}, p. 66, author’s emphasis).

Before the year ended, an enthusiastic ^{Rezende announced that in 1930}, Espírito Santo would host the first Brazilian Congress of Anthropophagy, a plan that was never completed. Anthropophagy, he said, expressed “[…] the greatest movement of ideas in Brazil, and perhaps in America [...]” (^{Rezende 1981}, p. 66), and the choice of Espírito Santo for “[…] the first collective conversation of the horde [...]” seemed appropriate to him since “[...] it was from this most beautiful piece of Brazil that the first complete cry of protest against the twisting work of colonization” (^{Rezende, 1929}b, p. 1). This first cry, according to him, would have been “[...] made practically by the capixaba aborigines with the deglutition of the son of Men de Sá, the prestigious and arrogant 3^rd governor general” (^{Rezende 1929}b, p. 1). This episode, which he considered to be the most audacious of the historical formation of Espírito Santo, would justify the choice of that state to host the event. The idea was that Congress would treat Brazil ‘in the anthropophagic civilization’ and that in this way, “[…] law, economics, science in general, art, education, everything forming the spiritual and structural foundation in the face of the world, will be studied with audacity and sincerity” (^{Rezende, 1929}b, p. 1).

In ^{Carvalho’s view (2007}, p. 100), Rezende would have acted as “[...] a spokesman for modernism in Espírito Santo”. His interest in the anthropophagic movement is evident in articles published in Morning diary (Diario da manhã) and in the journal Capixaba Life (Vida capichaba), as well as in the texts sent to Revista de antropofagia, in São Paulo, in which he associated the theme with education³¹. Enthusiastic, he went so far as to declare: “The ‘Morning diary (Diario da manhã)’, the official organ of the State, is anthropophagic” (^{Rezende, 1929}a, p.10, author’s emphasis). This was the tone that the journalist from Rio tried to print to the active school in Espírito Santo, from the networks that he established.

As for the 1930 Revolution - based on the foundations of nationalism, national developmentalism and patriotism latent in Brazilian society - we can say that it has generated important developments for the history told here. One of them was the dismissal of the Aristeu Borges de Aguiar government, which opposed the victorious revolutionary forces. The other was the impossibility of the landing of Adolphe Ferrière³² in Rio de Janeiro, during his visit to South America, representing the Ligue internationale pour l’éducation nouvelle. His intention, according to ^{Carvalho (2007}, p. 278), would be “[…] to spread the ideals of the League and to make known internationally the diffusion that the new pedagogical ideas were reaching in the South American continent”. After visiting several other countries, Ferrière arrived in Brazil amid the armed conflict and could not land. On the only day he spent in Brazil, on board the ship, he had access to the reading of national pedagogical forms, among them the edition of the Brazilian Journal of Education (Revista Brasileira de Educação), of November 5, 1929, from which he formulated the text on education in Espírito Santo, published in Pour l’ère nouvelle in 1931 (^{Peres, 2002}). Literally, the capixaba active school was located on the wharf.

Final considerations: nods from another wharf

In this study, we question the active school in Espírito Santo in networks of sociability, based on four analytical axes: scientific pedagogy, ‘Brazilianness’, nationalism, and teacher training. We understand that the view on/from the wharf through which political-pedagogical ideas and practices circulated in dispersions that are sometimes transoceanic, the capixaba active school does not fit into conclusive simplifications: this or that?

In networks of sociability (^{Sirinelli, 2003}), Adolphe Ferrière loaned the active school matrix to be developed in Espírito Santo. Moraes - influenced by Ugo Pizzoli - stood out for the production of knowledge according to the universal parameters of the ‘one and true’ science (scientific rigor). This rigor is expressed in the teacher training program (scientific pedagogy). Attilio Vivacqua gained visibility in the conduct of governmental actions, aiming at the institution of the local Active School. Rezende was especially responsible for the wide dissemination of assumptions and achievements of the active school in the renewal of the capixaba education. In the set of these inseparable elements, the active school was produced in Espírito Santo.

On the other hand, in view of the Brazilian historical moment in the 1920s, there was a doctrinal bias from which the defense of the ‘universality of scientific principles’ oscillated between the pretension of ‘national synthesis’ and the ‘patriotic- nationalist spirit’. In capixaba society, vigorously crossed by coronelism (^{Vasconcellos, 1995}) supported by coffee culture, feelings of Brazilianness and civic ardor seemed to call adhesions of broader social segments to the renovating educational actions aligned with the science of pedagogy.

Contrasting with local conservatism, Rezende circulated anthropophagic thinking in Espírito Santo, in search of a “[…] rehabilitated Brazil. Without the tired spirit of the old world, Brazil has purposely lost education to educate itself again” (^{Rezende, 1929}b, p. 1). Rezende even claimed “[…] to Espírito Santo the first act of hostility to the old literary order, with the creation of the Active School” (^{Rezende 1981}, p. 66). However, in the written work at the end of the Higher Program of Pedagogical Culture, a true political-pedagogical program for the capixaba new school, it is observed that this act of hostility to the old order was translated in the belief in the evolutionary progress and in the enthusiastic defense of North-American industrialism, in which the Brazilian education should mirror itself.

And final point: to accompany networks of sociability that helped to weave the educational reform in Espírito Santo forces us to question to what extent the capixaba active school, observed in its “[…] fine ramifications […]” (^{Revel, 2010}, p. 442), assumes more or less approximate contours to the “[…] unifying and universal [...]” architecture of active pedagogy, which is equivalent to considering escape lines by means of which there is ‘[…] something else [...]” (^{Revel, 2010}, p. 442) in the midst of negotiations with local life. This and that