"GRAVE!": GYMNASTICS AS A FIELD OF TENSIONS IN REPUBLICAN SCHOOLING IN ESPÍRITO SANTO (1908-1912)

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the introduction of Gymnastica as a mandatory subject in Espírito Santo between 1908 and 1912, during the administration of Jerônimo Monteiro, highlighting its implications for republican schooling. Grounded in the theoretical framework of the New Cultural History, the study adopts a historical analysis method, examining various sources such as official decrees, period newspapers, school photographs, theatrical scripts, and academic researches. Through these traces, the article seeks to understand how Gymnastica, legitimized by the educational reforms led by Gomes Cardim, functioned as a disciplinary and sensory ordering device, aligned with hygienist, civic, and moral prescriptions. The results indicate that its implementation was neither linear nor uncontested: it was marked by public criticism, internal school tensions, and tactical responses from teachers, students, and the broader community. The conclusions suggest that Gymnastica, far from being a neutral practice, constituted a field of symbolic and political disputes, where meanings related to the body, education, and citizenship were negotiated. Thus, schooling is understood as a space for the shaping of sensibilities and a site of resistance in face of the modernizing prescriptions of the republican project.