The Inclusion/Exclusion Dialectic: a Study on Schools for Children of Leprosy Patients, during the 20th Century, in the Brazilian State of Paraná

Abstract

Leprosy is a disease surrounded by taboos and a strong stigma ever since the most remote times. In Brazil, during the first decades of the 20th century, leprosy spread progressively and came to be a central public health concern. Thus, between 1926 and 1947, time span of this research, the solution proposed was isolating lepers from the society, which motivated the construction of leprosaria in several states of the federation. In the Brazilian state of Parana, locus of the study, the Sao Roque Leprosarium began operating, serving as an autonomous colony, including hospital, school, prison, bakery, and what else was necessary to assist the day by day of the patients. The research discusses the insertion of that school for lepers' children in the wider project of a hospital-colony. The inclusion/exclusion dialectic in education, here represented by a perverse social insertion, involves the sick one entirely in his relationships.