O professor da moda: Arthur Higgins e a educação física no Brasil (1885-1934)

Abstract

The field of study of the History of Physical Education in Brazil congregates contributions of interesting research that seek to reveal the codes and directions of knowing within the school in Brazil since the nineteenth century. This paper analyzes the performance and theoretical production of Arthur Higgins, a professor and teacher of gymnastics, considered in the end of the nineteenth as professor of the fashion. Through a historical work, which is sourced of school documents, publications in journals and Higgins’s compendium, the objective is to analyze the performance and textbook of Arthur Higgins for reflect about the objectives and directions of Physical Education in Brazil during the late of nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Initially were analyzed the Gymnastic Games organized by Arthur Higgins in Praça da República/ RJ, a form of dissemination of sports in our country. After that, we explain documents of Colégio Pedro II related to gymnastics, the institution of which Higgins was a teacher during almost 40 years. Finally we analyze the theory of Arthur Higgins exposed in their manuals and compendium, such as “Compendio de Gymnastica e Jogos Escolares” (1894), “Manual de gymnastica hygienica” (1902) and “Compendio de Gymnastica Escolar: Methodo Sueco-Belga” (1909), which when was updated, was renamed the “Compendio de Gymnastica Escolar: Methodo Sueco-Belga-Brasileiro” (1934).