The objective of this article is to comprehend some aspects of the school culture, to remark the selection of cultural, economic and educational values examined by the school instruction from the analysis of didactic manuals to teachers use, which were elaborated during the last decades of XIX century and based upon the Intuitive Method or Object Lessons. Although the manuals express the same philosophical basis, they present different procedures to the teaching of the school contents which are specific views of the scientific progress. The differences presented by the manuals linked to the modernisation project of society, in progress during XIX century, inform us about several points that constitute that project.