In this paper the relevance of exploring the concept of symmetry in a high school physics course is stressed. A review of a significative set of Brazilian teaching books led to the conclusion that there is no reference to the idea of symmetry and its rôle in science development. It is argued that there is no psico-pedagogical constraint of any type that prohibit to talk about symmetry to students at this level. Then, it is discussed how teaching the general concept of symmetry at this school level is important and a first specific proposal is made: the relation between uniform rectilinear mouvement and translation symmetry.
translation symmetry; textbook; conceptual physics
