This article is about the process of Alta Floresta Colonization, Mato Grosso, within 1976 to 1996. The project of colonization happened by private initiative of the contractor Ariosto da Riva, but it counted on the cooperation of the federal govern and the church. The school was founded in a process of settlement of small communities so that from the opening of land lots, the colonizer set apart some land to build the schools and it was used as a church. In this context, the schools played a very important role in the colonization process, and it becomes visible when we analyzes the educative relations, formal or not, that happened in that time. The church school got to itself the functions of being a space of meeting for the colonist to pray, learn, teach, celebrate life and death, the vitories and defeats of a people who dreamed and fought for a promised land.
history; colonists; school-church