Production and appreciation of school newspapers in Brasília in the columns of journalist Yvonne Jean (1962-1968)^{* 1}

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the behind-the-scenes production and appreciation of school newspapers for elementary school in Brasília based on the columns of journalist Yvonne Jean, published from 1962 to 1968 in the Correio Braziliense newspaper. Methodologically, the editions available in Hemeroteca Digital da Biblioteca Nacional were searched by the keyword “Yvonne Jean.” This descriptor was used to locate the columns written by the journalist. After a thorough reading of more than 600 columns, a summary was made of the information they provided about school newspapers. A second reading, this time of the summarized material, showed that the journalist approached the subject from two perspectives: the process of producing the newspapers and the appreciation of their content, which is why they are addressed from this standpoint in this study. The results of school newspaper production showed that they referred to a whole pedagogical experience lived by the children, which involved them in the process of gathering information, writing, printing, and selling advertising space in the school newspaper. They did, of course, have the help of adults, but they were undoubtedly the protagonists in this process. The appreciation of the newspapers showed a series of tips and suggestions from Yvonne Jean to these young editors to improve their editorial enterprise and motivate them in this pedagogical experience of the school press.

History of education; School newspapers; Brasília; Yvonne Jean

Resumo

O artigo tem por objetivo investigar os bastidores da produção e a apreciação dos jornais escolares das escolas primárias de Brasília, através das colunas da jornalista Yvonne Jean, publicadas entre os anos de 1962 e 1968 no jornal Correio Braziliense. Em termos metodológicos, consultaram-se as edições disponíveis na Hemeroteca Digital da Biblioteca Nacional, com a busca pela palavra-chave: Yvonne Jean. A partir desse descritor foram localizadas as colunas assinadas pela jornalista. Após a leitura integral de mais de seis centenas de colunas, realizou-se um fichamento das informações que elas traziam sobre os jornais escolares. Depois de uma segunda leitura, agora do material fichado, evidenciou-se que o assunto era tratado pela jornalista sob duas perspectivas: o processo de produção dos jornais e a apreciação dos seus conteúdos, razão pela qual são abordados sob esse enfoque no presente estudo. Em termos de resultados, sobre a produção dos jornais escolares, observou-se que esta remetia a toda uma experiência pedagógica vivenciada pelas crianças, que as envolvia no processo de coleta de informações, redação, impressão e venda de espaços publicitários no jornal da escola. Contavam, é verdade, com o auxílio de adultos, mas tinham, sem dúvida, certo protagonismo nesse processo. Acerca da apreciação dos jornais, foi possível identificar uma série de dicas e sugestões de Yvonne Jean aos jovens redatores, no sentido de aperfeiçoar seu empreendimento editorial e, ao mesmo tempo, motivá-los nessa experiência pedagógica da imprensa escolar.

História da educação; Jornais escolares; Brasília; Yvonne Jean

Introduction

In 1962, Belgian journalist Yvonne Jean da Fonseca (1911-1981) arrived in Brasília with her husband and son. At the invitation of Darcy Ribeiro, she came from Rio de Janeiro to work in the cultural extension sector of the newly created Universidade de Brasília (Teixeira, A. 2017). The choice of her name for this post was certainly due to her vast cultural capital — she spoke French, English, Spanish, German, Flemish, Italian and Portuguese (Silva, B.; Silva, R., 2022) and since she had immigrated to Brazil in 1940 fleeing Nazi persecution, she, of Jewish descent, was able to insert herself into the intellectual circles of Rio, frequenting the José Olympio bookshop and becoming close to characters such as writer Graciliano Ramos (Silva, B.; Silva, R., 2022). In Rio, in addition to a job at the Ministry of Education and Health, “first as a neuropathology technician and then as a translator of scientific articles and writer of histological papers, positions she held until 1946” (Silva, R., 2019, p. 175), she made a career in journalism, writing for the main newspapers and magazines in the former capital and São Paulo, on topics such as women, culture, and education (Mineirini Neto, 2019).

As soon as she moved to Brasília, Yvonne Jean continued her journalistic work, writing for the daily newspaper Correio Braziliense, an organ of Diários Associados no Planalto Central (Anjos, 2022a). In this newspaper, which was pro-government and concerned with defending the permanence and consolidation of the new capital (Morelli, 2002), she wrote articles and maintained three columns at different times: Esquinas de Brasília (started in 1962, interrupted and resumed in 1966, published until the end of the decade), Correio Estudantil (early 1962), and Ensino Dia a Dia (from mid-1962 until the end of 1965). Among the topics covered in her texts, those relating to education in municipal elementary schools stand out. In fact, in the new capital she kept a habit she had acquired in Rio de Janeiro in the 1940s: visiting schools³ and writing about them in her editorials, describing the school practices she witnessed and giving her opinion on them. One type of school practice she captured in her texts was the behind-the-scenes production of school newspapers by elementary school students in Brasília, which she discussed in her columns.

School newspapers have been the subject of frequent studies in the field of the history of education (Amaral, 2002; Bastos; Ermel, 2013; Lima, 2020, to name but a few). They are even a practice encouraged by active pedagogies (Freinet, 1974) and were thus quickly incorporated into the Brazilian education system, planned by educator Anísio Teixeira⁴. The novelty that Yvonne Jean’s view enables us to grasp about this dimension of school cultures is an aspect that has been little investigated by historiography so far: the production process and the appreciation of these printed materials by readers at the time. In fact, in her columns, when she deals with this type of school periodical, the journalist does so by highlighting traces of how the children were mobilized to produce them and writes about their style and content. This enables us to understand, on the one hand, how the world of children — even under the supervision of their teachers — produced these periodicals and their content, and, on the other hand, how the world of adults — in this case, the journalist speaking to the readers of her columns — positioned herself regarding the information that was put into circulation by children as elementary school students in this type of school newspaper.

In view of the above, this study, part of a broader post-doctoral research project⁵, aims to investigate the behind-the-scenes production and appreciation of school newspapers in elementary schools in Brasília based on the columns of journalist Yvonne Jean from 1962 to 968, the dates within which information on the subject can be found in her journalistic columns.

In methodological terms, following the thread of the name (Ginzburg, 1991), we consulted the editions of Correio Braziliense available in the Hemeroteca Digital da Biblioteca Nacional, searching for the keyword “Yvonne Jean.” This descriptor was used to locate the columns written by the journalist. After a thorough reading of more than 600 columns, a summary was made of the information they provided about school newspapers. A second reading — this time of the summarized material — showed that the journalist approached the subject from two perspectives: the process of producing the newspapers and the appreciation of their content, which is why they are addressed from that same standpoint in this study.

The historical narrative that follows unfolds in three parts. First, we investigate the behind-the-scenes production of school newspapers, as captured by Yvonne Jean’s gaze. Next, we look at the journalist’s assessment of school newspapers in her columns. Finally, we conclude with a few considerations.

Behind the scenes of school newspaper production

In her column of September 30, 1962, Yvonne Jean highlights what would have been one of the first reports on the newly created Universidade de Brasília (inaugurated on April 21 of that year), wrote not by professional journalists but by the editors of Gazeta Escolar, the newspaper of Escola-Classe 107 Sul. It begins by talking about the behind the scenes of the children’s reporting:

Here is one of the first major news reports carried out at UnB when it was just starting out, when no building had yet been finished, when it took a certain imagination to picture the complex that was going to be inaugurated in April… A team of reporters with their eyes wide open — Paulo Dourado, José Roberto Tschiedel do Valle, Samuel Goldenberg, Glei Renan Lattaro, and Nilton Dias Camargo — came in their numbers to the University, accompanied by a photographer, this one from CASEB. They were students from School 107 and editors of the “Gazeta Escolar” newspaper. They walked around, chatted, and made a report which has unfortunately only come into my hands. I want to publish this pioneering report on a university, followed by a short interview that nobody knew about at this early stage (Jean, 1962a, p. 9).

According to Yvonne Jean’s account, the students of Escola-Classe 107 Sul, much like adult journalists, tried to gather information on-site that would later emerge in their school newspaper. In their own way, they conducted news reporting, even with the help of a photographer, who was a high school student⁶ (CASEB was a secondary school). To do this, they went to the construction site that would eventually become the Universidade de Brasília campus — in which today the buildings of the Faculty of Education, the institution’s founding unit, are located (Rocha; Villar, 2018). There, they “walked around, talked, and produced a news story,” reporting on what was being built and printing it in their school newspaper. Months later, this article arrived in the hands of the Correio Braziliense columnist.

After presenting these behind the scenes of the news story carried out by the students, Yvonne Jean highlights the text they wrote about Universidade, in which new elements of the editorial process are revealed:

THE UNIVERSITY

Many people are working to build Universidade de Brasília.

The building, which is currently the main building, overlooks the lake.

This is where future architects and other arts and sciences doctors will come from.

The rooms are very large, spacious, and almost ready.

The teachers’ and students’ quarters are very tidy and beautiful.

We went with the help of a very kind lady: she is a reporter for CORREIO BRAZILIENSE, Yvonne Jean; her son is called João Luiz and he took the photographs.

The university auditorium, all the furniture is from Oca.

The ivory and imbuia furniture are a marvel.

It also has a large balcony. Sérgio Rodrigues is responsible for the construction. He designed all the furniture.

The University is already up and running.

There are 100 students in all.

INTERVIEW

The History and Criticism of Art teacher, Lígia Martins Costa, also collaborated with us by explaining how the subject is studied. It is the history of criticism of all peoples (Jean, 1962a, p. 9).

The news story written by the students of Escola-Classe 107 Sul gave readers an overview of the state of construction of Universidade de Brasília on the eve of its inauguration: the main building (called FE 1) overlooking Lake Paranoá (today hidden by buildings constructed later); the large classrooms (possibly those in the building called FE 3), the teachers’ and students’ temporary quarters (later replaced by the Colina buildings); the auditorium (which would later be named Dois Candangos in honor of two workers killed in an accident during its construction); the ivory and imbuia furniture by Sérgio Rodrigues, specially designed for the institution, among other aspects that caught their attention⁷.

The students’ text also offers another behind-the-scenes story: it was with the help of Yvonne Jean, an employee of the institution and a journalist for Correio Braziliense, that the child reporters were able to get to the UnB campus (in Asa Norte, which was a sparsely populated area at the time, very different from Asa Sul, in which Escola-Classe 107 Sul was located and possibly the boys’ homes). The secondary school photographer was none other than the journalist’s own son, João Luiz, who helped to illustrate the report with some photographs. As you can see, although the children’s authorship is evident in this case, they had the help of an adult and a youngster, so that what they saw and heard — in the interview with teacher Lígia Martins Costa — could be recorded and turned into news by the actions of the young writers.

This was not the first time that Yvonne Jean had dealt with the Gazeta Escolar of Escola-Classe 107 Sul in her columns. The first mention came months earlier, on May 27, 1962, when she seems to have been interviewed by the child reporters who, in turn, gave her detailed information about the editorial process of that school newspaper. Here is what Yvonne Jean wrote:

CLASS 107 SCHOOL

While gathering information for this column, the reporter — rather than conducting an interview — was interviewed! by fellow journalists. The young reporters of the “Gazeta Escolar” from Escola Classe asked questions about journalism in general and about Universidade de Brasília in particular, and are preparing a story for issue number 3 of their newspaper, to come out soon.

- Our fellow team at the “Gazeta Escolar”— boys aged 11 and 12 — is complete and well designed. Take a look: Director: Samuel Goldenberg, vice-director João Humberto Lattaro; editor-in-chief: Paulo Dourado; cartoonist: Glei Renan Lattaro; reporter: José Roberto Tschiedel do Valle; salesman: Nilson Dias Camargo. They also have the collaboration of all the fourth and fifth grade students. There are a few girl names missing from the team!

- The journalists at “Gazeta,” School 107, are very happy that their mimeograph has arrived. They campaigned hard at the school, raising more than 30,000 cruzeiros, and the mimeograph is now up and running.

- The commercial side is not being forgotten: they are asking for advertisements in stores and businesses: 5 cruzeiros per square centimeter. The ad must be no larger than 11 x 8 centimeters. All well thought out, as you can see.

- The cartoonist proudly recalls two good cartoons from previous newspapers: the poor cruzeiro bill clinging to the leg of the dollar to stop it from rising any higher and a guard letting an important person go the wrong way (Jean, 1962b, p. 9).

As part of her habit of visiting schools to get information for her column, Yvonne Jean had the opportunity to take a detailed look behind the scenes at the production of Gazeta Escolar. To be printed, it had a team made up of boys aged from 11 to 12 years (the journalist felt the editorial staff had no girls!), with well divided tasks between them: the printing area, which had a mimeograph acquired with the students’ own resources; a commercial part, with a salesman who offered advertisements in a predefined size, and a cartoonist, who, in its first editions, had drawn two caricatures denouncing the problems of society at the time: the rise of the dollar against the cruzeiro and the authorities’ blind eye to the infractions of important people.

It is interesting to note that the editorial staff of the school newspaper reproduced on a reduced scale the different functions of a real newspaper editorial staff. The student newspaper was the result of a carefully thought-out editorial process, which ranged from gathering information for the report to printing the text, including selling advertisements and social criticism. It was a kind of experiment, a keyword in the vocabulary of the Active School, which was in the pedagogical matrix of the elementary schools in Brasília. It was, in its own way, the realization of Anísio Teixeira’s aspiration for elementary school, to which he refers, anchored in Kilpatrick, in his Pequena introdução à filosofia da educação: the school must be “a school of life and experience so that the true conditions of the act of learning are possible” (Teixeira, A., 2000, p. 49), a “center where people live and not […] a center where people are prepared to live” (p. 46). Whether the teachers at Escola-Classe 107 Sul were inspired by the founder of the educational system in Brasília or by other circulating references to active schooling when encouraging their students to engage in the creation of the school newspaper, we will never know based solely on the sources available to us. However, in the field of historical possibilities (Davis, 1987) in which the historian often moves, it is possible to point out how close the practice was to the pedagogical recommendations of an authoritative advocate of active schooling, who echoed other famous educators of the time.

As “adult” newspapers, Gazeta Escolar of Escola-Classe 107 Sul also ran numerous campaigns on topics of interest to the school community. One of them was the Padlock and Glass Campaign, reported by Yvonne Jean in her column of October 2, 1962:

SCHOOL 107

On Sunday, we published a report on Universidade de Brasília, carried out by the former editorial team of the “Gazeta Escolar” of class 107 and alluded to the numerous student campaigns. Now here is an article by Sandra Nardelli about the padlock and glass campaigns:

EXTRAORDINARY DREAM

Last night I had a dream. I dreamed that I was the principal of Class 107 School and every morning, when I arrived, the children came to kiss me and hug me, saying:

- Good morning, Sandra! Good morning!

And that good morning for me was a source of joy.

One day, when I arrived, I saw everyone sad, and without asking anyone, I ignore them and went to my office.

From there, I ran through to the classrooms. What a disappointment it was to see that the desks were broken and the glass cracked!

And I thought that we should teach the children to love their school because then they would know how to respect it.

Each student would take care of it as their home because it is really their school.

Then I heard someone calling me and I was about to see what it was, when I woke up to my sister waking me up and I realized that I was not the principal but a student of 107 who loves the school and wants it with all my heart.

It was all just a simple but extraordinary dream.

How sad I felt when I saw those painful scenes before my eyes, even though I was dreaming, with our school destroyed by those who, more than anyone, should be looking after it.

Our school is like our home. We must love and defend it, not destroy it (Jean, 1962c, p. 9).

What emerges from all the information provided by Yvonne Jean to the readers of her column — and now to the historian of education — is that the Escola-Casse 107 Sul newspaper, to paraphrase Robert Darnton (1996), rather than just narrate events, wanted to be itself an ingredient and producer of the events it reported. Its editors — possibly motivated by their teachers, who were concerned about the upkeep of the school in this case — turned the newspaper into a vehicle for disseminating habits and behaviors to care for and protect the school grounds, which belonged to everyone. The experience provided by the campaign promoted by Gazeta Escolar was in line with modern conceptions of education then in circulation, such as those of the International Conferences on Public Education of the International Bureau of Education and Unesco. In fact, some of their recommendations called for students to be educated to conserve and preserve the school environments they attended (Anjos, 2021), as at this school in Brasília with the support of its school newspaper.

Appreciation of school newspapers by Yvonne Jean

It is now June 4, 1964. In this day’s column, Yvonne Jean devoted space to assessing the content of the school newspaper O Candanguinho, the organ of Escola Parque de Brasília. This institution was dedicated to the physical and artistic education of elementary school students, which some students attended after school hours and thus had the opportunity to complete their regular education at Escola-Classe, configuring the comprehensive education intended by Anísio Teixeira⁸. About the newspaper, a copy of which had been sent to the columnist, she remarks:

I was reminded of this when I received “O Candanguinho” — the newspaper of Escola Parque — which has a wide variety of chronicles and a lot of good will but which still lacks the dynamism of the old “Gazeta Escolar” and the experience of its editors, who were child reporters, but reporters nonetheless. So the interview with José Vasconcellos — an excellent subject — could not be labeled “sensational” because it is up to the public to appreciate it and not for the journalist to praise himself beforehand — and with such a strong adjective! — because he only managed to ask the artist where he was born and what he thinks of Brasília and offer two more interesting questions — “Are you willing to be funny every day?” and “Do you write the plays you perform?” — the answer was “Yes,” “yes,” and “always.” I am criticizing Paulo Henrique and Luiz Gonzaga because the choice of interviewee was one of the best and if, instead of repeating after their four questions “so we planned the sensational interview (again!) and we won,” they had prepared good questions, it would be the reader who would use the word “sensational” or “great,” which would be better than sensational! The team also tried to interview me at Escola Parque, and the students came up to me with a pad and pencil, giving the impression of real, serious reporters. But instead of asking for my impressions of Escola Parque, they just asked for… my autograph, which obviously will not generate any interviews! I give this advice to the young fellow journalists in the hope that the next issue will bring a good interview with a teacher or artist. I wish them luck (Jean, 1964a, p. 9).

Turning her column into a space for dialogue with the young editors of Candanguinho, Yvonne Jean observes that they still lacked the dynamism of Gazeta Escolar (i.e., something that could be acquired over time), whose operation we described in the previous section. This was evident, in part, by the excess of adjectives they used for their interview with artist José Vasconcellos (sensational), which was no more than a lacunar exchange of words with the interviewee. The practice of interviewing itself needed to be improved, with the preparation of good questions rather than just a request for an autograph, as had happened with Yvonne Jean herself when she was asked to be interviewed. Behind this advice was the journalist’s desire to see the practice of the school newspaper achieve its objectives of socialization and experience “in the hope that the next issue will bring a good interview with a teacher or artist.”

The tips and suggestions given by Yvonne Jean seem to have been considered by the young editors of Candanguinho, judging by what the journalist observed in her column of June 20, 1964:

The students at Escola Parque sent me their newspaper — “O Candanguinho.” In it I read: “Ensino Dia a Dia criticized our Candanguinho. We thank Yvonne Jean, because we also learn by making mistakes. Her column renders us as important as the rest of the journalists in Brasília.” Well done, my dear colleagues! This is how you should accept criticism that tries to be constructive and help you improve. Instead of crying, smile and decide to improve. By the way, the criticism of the soi-disant interview with José Vasconcelos and the self-praise for the “sensational” article has already had an effect! They went to the Minister of Education with prepared questions. This time, many questions have already made it to what is called an interview.

And since we are colleagues, and since I am happy to applaud an issue that is much better than the last one, allow me to make a small remark. It concerns pagination. Try to put complete articles on one page instead of starting them and forcing the reader to turn the page to find the end of the reading. If you want to draw attention to the main stories in the paper, you could write some headlines on the front page, with a link to the page where the article is. […] For the rest, carry on and congratulations to the journalists, who, as their director writes, take their responsibility so seriously and are so conscientiously accepting the constructive criticism they receive, certain that it will help them grow (Jean, 1964b, p. 7).

Here we have testimony to the effective communication circuit (Darnton, 2010) between the school newspaper and Yvonne Jean’s column in Correio Braziliense. Her observations were considered by the small editors of O Candanguinho, as evinced by the record they made of them in the newspaper itself and the changes they tried to make to improve its publication and, with it, communication with its readers. The conversation with the Minister of Education featured in the new issue of the newspaper had “many questions that have already made it to [what would be called] an interview.” Yvonne Jean’s new tips — on the typographical layout of the articles — only reinforced the general aim of the constructive criticism she had made a few days earlier, which was received by the students “certain that it would help them grow.”

Let us now turn to the assessment of newspaper O Arauto of Escola Classe 114 Sul. It was the subject of a column on May 2, 1965:

O ARAUTO — This school newspaper from Escola Classe 114 lives up to its name by publishing a lot of news in the issue dedicated to the anniversary of the municipality — a very well mimeographed issue.

It announces that they are rehearsing a short play, that they are going to exhibit artifacts and handicrafts representing Indigenous culture, that the Alliance Française has given eight scholarships to students from the school, that 114 is the first SQ to be illuminated, that school 114 has received a beautiful new gate, that the essay contest on the value of the book is open, that the school lunch is tasty this year, that elections were held for the Civic Center board, and that the Parent-Teacher Circle also chose a new board, that everyone needs to collaborate better in the school cleaning campaign, etc., etc.

These numerous short news items, alongside the tributes to Tiradentes “who paid, on the gallows, for the crime of dreaming of a free homeland? but who was an example and a beginning, because thanks to men like him… we were able to be masters of the soil we walk on;” and tributes to Brasília Esperança alongside small campaigns form a very journalistic newspaper that is of interest to those who do not belong to the school.

It is natural when it comes to improving the court because it is so green, so well carpeted that its grass belies the Englishman’s anecdote […] and more difficult when it comes to the interests of the schoolchildren themselves. However, the newspaper is so well done that, to begin with, we are going to address one of the appeals once and for all. It concerns books. After recommending books that are in the library and that the person in charge has chosen very well — “Ivanhoé,” “Anchieta,” Anderson translated by Monteiro Lobato for fifth graders; “The wonderful adventures of Nils,” “German fairy tales” for fourth graders, etc. — announced a contest of essays on the value of books in celebration of Book Day, competing for valuable prizes, including having their work published in the Correio Braziliense in the column O ENSINO DIA A DIA! (Jean, 1965, p. 8).

According to Yvonne Jean’s account, the “very well mimeographed” newspaper used resources like those of adult newspapers, going so far as to “interest those who do not belong to the school.” With countless headlines about everyday school life printed on its pages — ordinary class activities, to quote Anne-Marie Chartier (2000), which ranged from school exhibitions to civic activities much to the taste of the civil military dictatorship then in place in the country — but also about the school surroundings, the 114 Sul court, the young journalists produced an informative periodical in line with the expectations of a demanding reader who knew this pedagogical practice, as was the case with the Belgian-Brazilian journalist.

Continuing her appraisal, Yvonne Jean reveals to readers a blackmail made to her and her column by the newspaper’s editors regarding “a contest of essays on the value of books” about which the journalist knew nothing but with which she agreed to collaborate, which once again indicates the consistent network of communication between her and the authors of the school paper:

JOURNALIST FOR REAL

Did I not say that these child journalists were real journalists? The mentioned column knew nothing about the space it offered. It was faced with a “fait accompli”! Given such positive journalistic blackmail, of course it can only comply and even applaud: indeed, this column will publish the best essay on the book, and more than that, it is offering the winner, whose name has not yet been revealed, the book Os tucanos da floresta alegre (The Toucans of the Happy Forest), which I wrote a few years ago and which Editora Melhoramentos has just reissued. It is available to the school at my house. Just come and get it (Jean, 1965, p. 8).

Another school newspaper that Yvonne Jean appreciated was that of Escola-Classe 308 Sul, which was also called O Candanguinho. The first issue was sent to the journalist and she wrote about it in her column on June 1, 1967:

O CANDANGUINHO

We would like to thank the students of Escola Classe 308 for sending us their newly-created newspaper “O Candanguinho” whose excellent title the children themselves came up with. The fourth graders who made it have a certain journalistic sense which, with practice, will undoubtedly enable them to encourage the planned contacts with the community, as their coordinator mentioned.

Thus, the balance of achievements (repairs to shutters and drains, purchase of furniture, utensils, books and uniforms, campaign for the upkeep of the building), the planning for the month (cleaning, purchases, liaison with Escola Parque, newspaper mural, civic hours, parent-teacher meetings, excursions, etc.), as well as the social section are done with a simplicity we approve of and some humor that needs to be cultivated (Example: the section “It’s a fact… it’s a rumor!” which says “That pre-primary students are very small is a fact… but that they aren’t learning to read is… a rumor! That they tried to take the flagpole from our school is a fact, but that the principal let them is… a rumor! That the teachers planned meetings with the parents is a fact… but that everyone showed up is… a rumor”).

Congratulations on your initial effort… (Jean, 1967, p. 8).

Yvonne Jean begins by praising the fact that the name of the newspaper was chosen by the children themselves, which showed the children’s agency (albeit under the inevitable supervision of their teachers) from the conception of the school newspaper to its preparation, which, with time and practice, would achieve the goal of being a communication link with the community, as was the case with other newspapers the journalist had analyzed in previous years in her column. Summarizing the content — which touches on various aspects of the material culture of the school, i.e. “the set of material artifacts in circulation and use in schools, mediated by the pedagogical relationship, which is intrinsically human, revealing the social dimension” (Souza; Peres, 2011, p. 56) — the journalist highlights the fact that the school’s material culture is not just a matter of the school’s culture. 56) — the journalist highlights the touch of humor that the students were able to add to some sections of the school newspaper, such as the one entitled It’s a fact… it’s a rumor, in which they satirize school situations, such as the failed attempt to steal the flagpole of the school or the poor attendance of parents at the meetings they were called to.

O Candanguinho from Escola-Classe 308 Sul was again the subject of Yvonne Jean’s column on May 29, 1968:

We received the little newspaper from Escola-Classe 308, issue 7 of “O Candanguinho,” which we always support because it tries to communicate through a report, even if small, an interview, even if superficial, and news of daily interest to children, because whatever it is, it is nice.

We liked the appeal for the plants in the courtyard that some people step on, which prevent the flowers from “smiling at the children” and the restoration of the garden by the students. We liked the original concept of the young man who, when recounting his vacation, remembers that he read a lot “because it makes you grow.” We liked the Brasília tree with its roots and future fruit. Above all, we liked the hymn of love for Brasília, which is “ever more blooming and beautiful” and which deserves birthday congratulations like Lúcio Costa, Niemeyer, and Juscelino deserve. We suppose that the readers, for whom the little newspaper is being mimeographed, liked the gossip that revolves around their school life (Jean, 1968, p. 6).

The fact that O Candanguinho had reached its seventh issue almost a year after its launch is evidence that the initiative had been carried out by students — perhaps no longer those who had presided over its creation if it had continued to be produced by fourth grade students, who, in 1968, would have been different from those of 1967 — and was embedded in the culture of the school. It had a bit of everything: “reports, even if small,” interviews “even if superficial,” and news “of daily interest to children.” In other words, the newspaper dialogued with the expectations of its readership and was generally considered “nice” by Yvonne Jean (1968, p. 6). The summary of its content shows that it revealed the needs of the school and the points of view and opinions of its editors (including a section of “gossip around their school life”) and was undoubtedly a “document-monument” (Le Goff, 1991) of a set of representations (Chartier, R., 2002) shared by the children, albeit under the very likely supervision of their teachers. A document to which we have access in a fragmentary way, by the assessments of an adult who talked in her columns not only to adults but also to the world of children.

Final considerations

This study aimed to investigate the behind-the-scenes production and appreciation of school newspapers for elementary school in Brasília based on the columns of journalist Yvonne Jean that were published from 1962 to 1968.

Regarding the production of school newspapers, this referred to a whole pedagogical experience lived by the children, which involved them in the process of gathering information, writing, printing, and selling advertising space in their school newspaper. They did, of course, have the help of adults, but undoubtedly led this process. Regarding the appreciation of the newspapers, Jean offered a series of tips and suggestions to these young editors to improve their editorial enterprise and encourage them in this pedagogical experience of the school press.

As we have identified the existence and prominence of school newspapers in the columns of journalist Yvonne Jean in Brasília, further studies should try to locate in the records of the oldest schools in the Federal District — both those mentioned in this study and others — the possible existence of collections or fragments of school newspapers with a view to produce other works that delve deeper into the actual content and materiality of these school printed materials. The interpretations in this study could be a starting point for future research.

References

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• 1Data availability:
  - the entire data set supporting the results of this study has been published in the article itself.
• 3
  - In 1948, she even published a book entitled Visitando escolas (Jean, 1948), sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Health, in which she reported on the daily life of schools in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro and a school in the Baixada Fluminense, the famous Escola Regional de Meriti, owned by Armanda Álvaro Alberto.
• 4
  - On the Brasília education system, see Anísio Teixeira (1961) and Juarez Anjos (2022b). Even before the official inauguration of the Brasília education system in 1960, school newspapers were already circulating in the provisional schools of the new capital, as evinced by two mimeographed copies in the collection of the Federal District Education Museum.
• 5
  - This research “Primary school cultures in the columns of journalist Yvonne Jean (Brasília, 1960s)” is carried out at the Graduate Program in Education at Universidade Federal de Uberlândia under the supervision of Betânia de Oliveira Laterza Ribeiro. This research was funded by the DPI/DPG of Universidade de Brasília, to whom I would like to express my thanks.
• 6
  - In Brasília, according to Anísio Teixeira’s Educational Plan, secondary education was called Middle Education.
• 7
  - The description of UnB given by the students of Escola-Classe 107 Sul coincides in several respects with that given by Flávio Oshiro and Marcelo Mari (2023) in their recent study “Sérgio Rodrigues at the experimental site of the University of Brasília.”
• 8
  - See Wiggers (2023) on the workings of Escola Parque de Brasília during this period.

• Responsible editor:
  Prof. Dr. Roni Cleber Dias de Menezes

Data availability

- the entire data set supporting the results of this study has been published in the article itself.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  11 July 2025
• Date of issue
  2025

History

• Received
  23 Jan 2024
• Accepted
  13 Mar 2024