The educational projects of the Sociedade Auxiliadora da Indústria Nacional: the trajectories of the Elementary Night School for Adults and the Industrial School (1871 – 1902)

Abstract

The Elementary Night School for Adults and the Industrial School, established by the Sociedade Auxiliadora da Indústria Nacional (1825 – 1904) in 1871 and 1872, respectively, were the only two successful educational projects of the long-lived association. Based in the neutral municipality of Rio de Janeiro, the schools were part of a small group of charitable and private night schools, occasionally subsidized by the Imperial Government, aimed at the education of young adults and adults in the Court. Through research on institutional documents, official reports, periodicals of the period and the historiography of night schools, this article sought to analyze the trajectories of the two schools from the composition of their faculty and students, curricula and foundations. From this documentation, two robust institutions were found with more than three decades of operation, through which more than five thousand students passed through their desks and stools.