Texto e contexto: Educação e presença alemã no sul de Mato Grosso, 1920-1934

Abstract

This essay takes us back to the very beginning of the German presence in the South of Mato Grosso as an expressive group and its educational process in this State, which means to find paths for its whole new life. The time period which has been focused here goes from 1920 to 1934: the very successful years of the Agricultural Colony of Terenos. Education should be a preparation for life and those German people were exposed to a new world mentality and its differences, totally distinct of their standard education, their old known life and culture. In this particular case education had been fundamental and gave them enough background to support all the adversities. The purpose which we have been searching for in this essay is to understand and register this peculiar process or even the evolution of this period of immigration’s history in this State. Why did those people come to the South of the wild Mato Grosso, when there were so many welldone and advanced colonies in the South of Brazil at that time? What kind of education process were they exposed to? What kind of “textbooks” had they dealt with? What kind of school had their children attended to? Was there after all a schooling waiting for them? For lack of it what kind of strategies were they looking after in order to supply this gap? Those are the main questions, actually the clues, whose answers and paths we have been looking for throughout this study.