Organization of primary vocational education in minas gerais: Mendes Pimentel in defense of popular education

Abstract

This article analyzes the arguments of the lawyer, professor and politician Francisco Mendes Pimentel which gave support to the bill presented by him as a deputy in 1896, in favor of organization of primary vocational education in Minas Gerais. This is one of the first public initiatives to organize the vocational education in the state. For Mendes Pimentel, popular education through work represented solution to the major problems of the country and was seen by him as a reformer element of society. Education would reform to adapt the population to the new political regime and to promote social and economic progress of the state and country. The main sources are the bill and the articles by Mendes Pimentel which were published in press during the last decade of the Nineteenth century.