This paper aims to analyze the proposals for education and schooling of children aged between three and seven years presented for discussion at the “Congresso de Instrução”, which would be held in the city of Rio de Janeiro in 1883, however, due to political disputes, the event was canceled. For purposes of analysis, we selected the opinions that were published by the Tipografia Nacional in 1884, which argued and/or addressed the issue of kindergartens. As a theoretical and methodological support, we chose to follow the propositions that take into consideration the subjects as agents of history, which through experience gave senses and meaning to their agenda of struggles and social clashes. Finally, although the event was not held, we understand that the discussions proposed for the education and schooling of children under the age of seven years by the “Congresso de Instrução de 1883” is a milestone of nineteenth-century Brazilian education, as it is the first discussion on a national scale in Brazil in which kindergartens were considered as the first stage of schooling.