The purpose of this paper is to identify those challenges which co-operative work, developed by 'settled' farmers, raise for the primary school. The methodology involves a literature review about economic solidarity and action-research carried out in settlements established by the Land Reform and in rural schools in the municipality of Piratini/RS. The research focuses on the relation between co-operative work and school education. The discourse of the subjects of the research reveals the conflict between the formation required for co-operative agricultural work and the model of basic education on which rural education is based.