The practice of punishment and rewarding in primary schools of the nineteenth century: from the legal to the real

Abstract

The historians of education, especially Manacorda, have detached the pedagogical sadism as one of the basic characteristics of the educational process through education history. In Brazil, the history was no different, since the practice of punishment and rewarding have been present in primary schools of the Nineteenth Century, characterizing itself as central elements in the masters’ pedagogical actions. While accepting such assertion, I have as the main objective in the present text, to investigate the mechanisms used by teachers and/ or State to spread such values and principles among students. The analyses of the punishment and rewarding practices were important components of the School curriculum, effectively contributing to the introduction of specific values in the school population, and through it, to the society.