<b>Teaching arithmetic at the primary school in the nineteenth century: the memories of Humberto de Campos

Abstract

This article focuses on the narrative of Humberto de Campos in his first volume of memoirs (1886-1900) with regard to the education of the author. The first section emphasizes the importance of autobiographical writing for research in History of Education, and especially in History of Mathematics Education. The second section is a brief presentation of Humberto de Campos as a Brazilian writer. The next part discusses the theoretical and methodological foundations adopted for the use of autobiographical sources in research. The core of the text consists of the approach of the main school experiences narrated by Humberto de Campos in Parnaíba, in the interior of the state of Piauí, in the 1890s, highlighting practices that involve mathematical knowledge. The writer’s school memories emphasize the material precariousness of elementary education, the simultaneous teaching of many students of different levels in schools managed by a single teacher and the teaching methods based on repetition and memorization and supported in practices of punishment and humiliation of students.