Since the proclamation of the Republic, in Brazil, in 1889, until the enactment of the Organic Law on Primary Education in 1946, the norms on primary schooling were on the responsibility of the States that make up the federation. The text examines the norms established in this period, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in the period known as the First Republic (1889-1930) and in the period named Era Vargas (1930-1945), focusing on the specifications concerning the teaching of Arithmetic. Connections are established between the programmatic and methodological guidelines for the Arithmetic and government policies of expansion, modernization, planning and control of primary education.
history of education; history of school subjects; primary school; arithmetic; mathematics education