Cleaning up the race through the hands of ruralist education: the case of the Butantan Rural School Group in the 1930s

This paper presents the experience of the Butantan Rural School Group, in the city of Sao Paulo, in the 1930s. This was regarded as one of the few schools in Brazil with pedagogical aims based essentially on rural themes. The undertaking was due mainly to the efforts of Noemia Mattos Cruz, who was an advocate of developing ruralist ideology, starting from an educational plan based on hygienism, at a time when republicanism was bringing in many contentions regarding the purpose of education and teachers' "mission". The School Group matured in the 1930s, when government care centered on childhood, and it gained space and the federal authorities' attention through linking country matters to sanitary education, to produce "eugenically well formatted" Brazilian citizens. For this reason, the historicity of its construction and practices, implying adherence to a political project of public health and education aimed at rural settings, needs to be considered.