Entre o exame do corpo infantil e a conformação da norma racial: aspectos da atuação da Inspeção Médica Escolar em São Paulo

Abstract

This article analyzes aspects of the activities of the School Medical Inspection Service, an agency created in 1911 under the São Paulo State Sanitary Service and transferred in 1916 to the Secretary of Public Instruction. It focuses, more specifically, on the practice of the individual examination of students with the purpose of understanding the motivations behind these practices, the role they played in establishing standards of normality and abnormality, as well as their underlying racial tenor. To this end, its sources are articles published in the periodical Imprensa Médica, works written by the agency's head physician, Balthazar Vieira de Mello, and the Anuários do ensino, the official publication of the General Board for Public Instruction.

The dangers of infection: school medical inspection in Brazil (the 1910s)

“…The statements of the head doctor of this research allow us to infer that such investigations were overlaid by a racial element (Rocha, 2015). This is clear when he claims that he did not intend to display the strength of the "São Paulo type" by data collected in schools, but to "create the 'type' resulting from the merging of races so largely noticed in this Capital" (Mello, 1917, pp.…”

“…Ferreira in São Paulo was the head of the São Paulo League against Tuberculosis, and Moncorvo Filho in Rio was in the Institute for Child Protection and Care, organization that investigated tuberculosis in poor children and promoted treatments against the disease. The connections between the two doctors were probably long-standing: in 1887, Ferreira took over the direction of the Pediatrics Service, created by Moncorvo Filho's father, where he worked for nearly a decade, until he took the position of sanitary inspector in São Paulo (Rocha, 2015).…”

“…The inspection should be responsible for public and private institutions of primary, secondary and professional education. According to the article 67, from decree 2,141, this institution was responsible for the aspects stated in the work published in 1902 by Vieira de Mello, which included buildings; furniture; teaching methods and processes; school positions and attitudes; distribution of subjects; timetable; breaks and physical exercises; examination of teachers, students and staff; vaccination and revaccination; and prevention of infectious diseases (Rocha, 2009(Rocha, , 2015.…”

Artigo - Escola De Aplicação Ao Ar Livre De São Paulo Open-Air School of São Paulo

“…Vieira de Mello recommended the creation of open-air schools in São Paulo especially designed to attend children classified as abnormal, either by their physical constitution or psychic aspects. The anthropometric and psychic evaluation sheets created by the physician were based on the polarization between children's bodies considered as normal and pathological (ROCHA, 2015;ALMEIDA, 2015).…”

À Sombra Das Árvores... Respirando Ar Puro: Educação E Divertimentos Junto À Natureza Na São Paulo Dos Anos 1920

“…Nos rios e represas, os eventos e competições esportivas construíam novos circuitos de sociabilidade (JORGE, 2006(JORGE, , 2016NICOLINI, 2001), produzindo usos e sentidos distintos daqueles que já existiam anteriormente, desde os primórdios da cidade, ligados ao trabalho, ao transporte, às necessidades básicas e aos divertimentos cotidianos. 2 No âmbito das escolas brasileiras, os anos 1920 marcam também a gradual consolidação da entrada de parte do pensamento higienista nos currículos, nas práticas pedagógicas, nos manuais de ensino e na própria arquitetura dos colégios, encarando tais elementos como partes de um projeto de intervenção sobre os corpos, as emoções e a moral dos alunos (ROCHA, 2009(ROCHA, , 2015(ROCHA, , 2017. Intervenção intimamente ligada a um projeto de nação, no qual se imaginava um Brasil higienizado, fortalecido fisicamente e moralizado (GÓIS JUNIOR, 2013).…”