Education played a central role in the intellectual and political dimension of the process of modernization in Brazil. This text focuses on this role by discussing the relationship between education and modernity, above its condition of an index of modernization in the state of Minas Gerais in the first half of the twentieth century. To do so, we analyze governor Antônio Carlos and his secretary Francisco Campos' discourses underlying their influent education reform, which is supposed to convey traces of progress and bonds with the local oligarchy's interests. Methodological procedures included bibliographical research to contextualize conceptually and historically our discussion and analytical reading of extracts of these politicians' official discourses.
Francisco Campos Reform; progress; oligarchy; modern