“Lessons for teachers:” the Health Education (Hygiene and Preventive Medicine) course and teacher training in Rio de Janeiro, 1929-1930

Abstract

This article analyzes the course in health education (Hygiene and Preventive Medicine) developed in 1929 by Oscar Clark, head doctor of the Medical Inspection and School Dental Care Service. We investigate the concept of teacher training implemented in schools in Rio de Janeiro (then Brazil’s capital) to create a “health crusade.” We start from the understanding that the course emerged in locus and produced lessons on education and hygiene, acting as a prescriptive space for medicine, pedagogy, and science, remembering that the course was part of the strategies of the Board of Instruction (1927-1930) to establish a normative and educational ethos for everyday teaching practices.