Ensino em Juiz de Fora da Belle Époque: educação particular e confessional para uma elite urbana

Abstract

Emancipated from Barbacena in 1850, under the name of Santo Antônio do Paraibuna, the city of Juiz de Fora began to consolidate its urban infrastructural bases only in the 1880s. During this period, when the city began to experience a moment of high economic prosperity, based on the coffee culture, which applied much of its earnings to the development of urban activities. Then, the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century was a period in terms of the implementation of commercial, industrial, and banking establishments, several urban equipment, and educational institutions, a theme specially treated here as essential. This period characterized the Belle Époque juiz-forana, when the local elite produced and enjoyed improvements in the urban center, among which were the private confessional schools. While the colleges occupied, geographically speaking, the city center, the public schools occupied the rural area. While the former was intended for the children of the local elite, who were white children, the other institutions were the places destined for the education of the poorer classes, including black children. The private schools, besides being an essential urban service, also influenced the city's territorial planning. Firstly, because they played an important role in attracting people to the city, by stimulating occupation in the central areas. And secondly, when they acquired large urban properties, they also prevented the occupation of these areas by other enterprises, indirectly regulating the real estate market and preventing, in a way, the advancement of the verticalization process. Finally, adopting as a temporal cut out the period between 1880 and 1907, we present the main characteristics and dichotomies of juiz-foranas educational institutions and relate them to the local urbanization process, driven by a moment of great economic growth.