Teacher’s health in the school’s quotidian – a historical research

Abstract

Currently, occupational diseases have been receiving emphasis in many scientific studies due to their high incidence, which suggests that it is a phenomenon exclusive to the present-day. Teachers are among the working classes most affected by physical and/or mental illness. The objective of this work is to investigate how the teacher’s health subject has been considered in the scientific literature. As primary source for this study, the Annals of the first National School Health Congress that took place in São Paulo/SP in 1941 were utilized. The results indicate that prevention and dissemination of healthy habits were required by school education, and the teacher was one of those responsible for this task. Moreover, as consequence of this requirement, the concern with the teacher’s health was linked to the efficiency of teaching, although the exercise of the profession was already considered exhausting. Lastly, minutiae aside, the teacher needed to deal with situations that surpassed the act of teaching itself, just like nowadays.