Labor and urban schooling: nightly course for adults and young workers at the Municipal School of São Sebastião, Rio de Janeiro (1872-1893)

Abstract

In this study we investigate the possibilities, tensions and limitations of the schooling process of young and adults, workers and poor people, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, considering, particularly, the case of the nightly course offered by the School of São Sebastião. Created in 1872, the school was located in the parish of Santana, central area, one of the sites with the higher number of popular housing. Through serial analysis of the book of school enrollment, for the period of 1884 to 1893, and also in the major circulation newspapers, it is possible to see that the nightly course received important contingent of students, from the age of 10, young workers devoted to various crafts and occupations, who resorted to night classes to instruct themselves in the first letters.