Colégio Augusto

Colégio Augusto, in English Augusto College, was a school for girls in Rio de Janeiro founded in 1838 by the Brazilian educator Nísia Floresta, who resigned as its director in 1849. Its opening was announced in the Jornal do Commercio on 31 January 1838, promising reading, writing, arithmetic, sewing, the grammar of the national language by an easy method, French, Italian and the general principles of geography, with masters of music and dance and places for boarding and day pupils. Floresta wanted girls to receive an education on a par with what was open to men, so the curriculum also included science, languages, history, religion, geography, physical education, arts and literature. The school and its director drew sharp criticism in the newspapers of the time for teaching content judged unsuitable for girls. It operated for seventeen years in the centre of the capital, first at Rua Direita number 163, and it was named in homage to Floresta's late husband, Manuel Augusto de Faria Rocha.