Most immigrants did not have advanced education and, despite a regulation from 1867 that mentioned the creation of schools in the colonial region as a government function, few had access to this institution. This was due to several factors, such as the large number of children in a family, which made it financially unfeasible to send a child to school, as there would be one less person to help with the chores and there was the cost of purchasing school supplies.

Furthermore, it was difficult to find teachers who spoke Portuguese, understood the different Italian dialects and were willing to leave urban areas. In this way, the communities themselves organized and built small wooden schools, where those who taught were the immigrants who had more education.

The Italian government and the Queen Margarida Mutual Relief Society, created in 1882, encouraged the creation of more schools, but the subsidies were not enough. In addition, Italian schools began to be frowned upon by the state government, for not encouraging a sense of belonging to the new homeland, disappearing at the beginning of the 20th century.

Initially, these educational institutions did not have strict timetables and teaching periods, so it was easier to adapt to the routine of immigrants, who needed the help of children for agricultural work. Starting in the 20th century, with new legislation and the emergence of schools linked to churches, schedules, norms, assessment exams, age for admission began to be institutionalized.

Such educational institutions are conceived based on the arrival of congregations that came from Europe in order to help immigrants in the most diverse sectors, as it was known that they were in a precarious situation and threatened to distance themselves from the faith.

The first school, installed in a wooden house built by the community, was Colégio São Carlos in April 1915, which began with the arrival of 5 missionary sisters from the Congregation of São Carlos Borromeo, invited by Dom João Becker and through by Father Henrique Poggi¹ (priest of the Santo Antônio Church).

Four months later, Poggi raised funds for the construction of a three-story building, to which the school moved the following year, accumulating more than 80 students. Its location was in the center of the city, and classes were aimed at primary education, with extra lessons in piano, singing, catechism and manual tasks.

In the first years of Colégio São Carlos, according to photographs of the period, the classes did not have an age pattern, appearing to have children from 5 years old to teenagers. The boys' class was separated from the girls' class.

In addition, the community valued a teaching that instructed according to Catholic precepts, elucidating the professional path for boys and domestic skills for girls. There was also the explicit preference of the parents for teaching in Italian, so that the traditions and memory of Italy would be maintained, which was in line with what was offered by Colégio São Carlos.

Final exams were held at the end of each year, for each subject, with a specialized guarantor, and then there was the closing party for the school year. The guarantor was some authority of the city, such as Maestro Cappelli, the municipal band and Dr. Gino Battochio, an Italian consular agent, who in 1917 evaluated the piano and the Italian of the students, respectively.

From 1941 onwards, the College began to also offer the complementary course (training teachers for public primary education) and in 1944, after the reform of the normal schools, the institution became the Female Gymnasium Nossa Senhora Medianeira. In 1949, the course for normalists was conceived, named Escola Normal Senhora Medianeira, which trained female teachers.

On April 1, 1999, the school changed its name to Colégio Scalabriniano Nossa Senhora Medianeira, in honor of the patron saint of Rio Grande do Sul. Currently, the institution offers from nursery to high school.

Sources:

FROM PARIS, Assunta. Memories: Bento Gonçalves - RS - Historical Foundation - Bento Gonçalves: City Hall of Bento Gonçalves: Municipal Historical Archive. 2nd ed. 2006.

CAPRARA, Bernadette Schiavo; LUCHESE, Terciane Angela. From Dona Isabel Colony to the Municipality of Bento Gonçalves 1875 to 1930 - Bento Gonçalves: VISOGRAF; Porto Alegre: CORAG - Companhia Riograndense de Artes Gráficas, 2005.

LUCHESE, Terciane Angela; MATIELLO, Marina; BARAUSSE, Alberto. Religious, immigrant, woman: Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo – Scalabrinian in a transnational perspective (1895-1917). Educational Dialogue, Curitiba, vol. 19, no. 63, p. 1418-1445, Dec. 2019. Available at: https://periodicos.pucpr.br/index.php/dialogoeducacional/article/view/25729/0. Accessed on: 10 Oct. 10.

MATIELLO, Marina. Religiosity, Ethnicity and Education: The Presence of the Carlist-Scalabrinian Sisters in Rio Grande Do Sul (1915 – 1948). 2019. 285 f. Thesis (Doctorate) - History and Philosophy of Education Course, University of Caxias do Sul, Caxias do Sul, 2019. Available at: https://repositorio.ucs.br/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11338/5474/Tese% 20Marina%20Matiello.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.

Mediatrix 100 years. Weekly. Bento Gonçalves, 24 Apr. 2015. Available at: https://jornalnacional.com.br/medianeira-100-anos-1238/.