Based on the regulations of the Teaching Code of Paraná State and on the Program for Primary School Teaching and Similar Models, both from 1917, this article analyzes health-related proposals for primary school teaching in Paraná at a time when public health and themes related to eugenics were becoming widespread in Brazil. Considering, as Edward P. Thompson once wrote, that legislation is the result of conflict, negotiations and social deals, the text highlights the case of the transfer of the isolated Graciosa de Baixo School to the town of Antonina. The central argument for this transfer was health, and this resulted in different reactions from parents of students, the teacher and the state authorities in late January 1917. The transfer of the Graciosa de Baixo School affords a glimpse of proposals for health that could be detected in the Teaching Code of Paraná, in the Program for Primary School Teaching and Similar Models and also in state reports on education that were effectively guided by the customs of parents (and their children) and the teacher at the school. All of these people were concerned with the importance of primary school education.
education and health; legislation; public health; customs; Paraná