Manual de liçôes de coisas de Norman Calkins: operacionalizando a forma intuitiva de ensinar e de aprender

Abstract

[Abstract] The article analyzes the work “First lessons of things: a manual of elementary teaching for parents and teachers”, written by the American author and teacher, Norman Calkins, which was adopted as a guide to direct the implementation of the method of intuitive teaching used by elementary school teachers in Santa Catarina State, Brazil, starting in 1911. Ranging from the contents to be supplied to the methodological prescriptions to be followed, this manual is very particular representation of the way in which teaching is conceived and practiced, making it one of the fundamental links in the creation of the identity of schooltea- chers during the period of the First Republic. This manual served to instill the core categories of thought and action that were essential to the mission they were charged with by the Republicans, i.e. to produce “rational citizens” which, at that time, was interpreted as being a law-abiding, patriotic citizens who believed in social and scientific progress.