Calkins’ Primary Object Lessons: Practices For Drawing And Measuring

Abstract

This article analyzes the handbook Primary Object Lessons, emblematic article on the process of pedagogical innovation at the end of the nineteenth century in Brazil. The proposed lessons developed by Calkins assume a deeply practical education, according to Pestalozzi. The purpose of the study is to analyze how the practices are revealed in the teaching proposal of geometric knowledge and, to this end, it investigates how they are mobilized on the lessons of shapes, numbers and drawings, i.e. what the practices are and in what ways they participate in the schooling process of geometric knowledge inserted into sustained methodological proposal by the assumptions of Pestalozzi. The aim is, based on Chervel (1990), to understand geometric knowledge in the early years as a product historically built by Brazilian primary schools. It seems clear that what is at stake is the development of practices to estimate measures with the naked eye, a skill that requires school learning and systematic exercise. As for drawing, Calkins‟ handbook ratifies practices already initiated in previous manuals, the practice of freehand drawing of geometric figures. In summary, it appears that drawing and measuring are supporting practices when teaching practical geometry and deserve further investigation.