“There are no reforms without regrets”: ensiones entre Orestes Guimarães y la Congregación de la Escuela Normal de Santa Catarina con motivo de la reforma de 1911

Abstract

This article analyzes some of the tensions between Orestes Guimarães and the Congregation of the Santa Catarina Normal School in the context of the curriculum reform of 1911. The debate started with the non-approval, by the Santa Catarina governor, of the new program and schedule elaborated by the Congregation, as required by the Decree n. 572, of 25 February 1911. A founding document, this decree, written by Orestes, presents the basis on which the reform should be carried out, giving the Congregation the task of presenting a befitting program and schedule. The tension caused by the governor’s veto was worsened by his decision to immediately charge Orestes Guimarães with the task of elaborating them. The curriculum presented by the reformer is understood here as a strategy – as theorized by Michel de Certeau – to radically modify the culture of the Normal School. This curriculum will be analyzed together with the multiple tactics employed by the Congregation – also according to Certeau – to avoid putting into practice the proposed modifications, aiming to maintain the school’s old culture. For this analysis, attention was given to the new and old curricula, to reports written by Orestes Guimarães and by Horácio Nunes Pires, principal of the Normal School, and to memoranda from the school’s principal and teachers of the Normal School directed to the General Secretary of Affairs of the State of Santa Catarina.