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WHO WE ARE - History
The book "L'istituto statale per sordi di Roma - Storia di una trasformazione a cura di Simonetta Maragna" (The National Institute of deaf in Rome-history of a transformation" edited by Simonetta Maragna is available).
For further information click here
The National Institute of the deaf in Rome was the first public school in Italy established for deaf. In 1700 Father Tommaso Silvestri, returned to Rome after studying "the art of instructing the deaf and dumb" from the famed Abbey De L'Epée in Paris.
Upon his return, Silvestri opened a school for the deaf, which initially operated with only eight students out of the lawyer Di Pietro's home, who had financed the travel.
Subsequently, the school became a real school and, after changing addresses several times, it was financed by the Vatican. As it is written in the book "How to teach and make speak deaf and dumb from birth" by Tommaso Silvestri (the book is preserved in the Institute's library), the school assumed a bilingual education model: spoken and written Italian and sign language.
But after the Milan Conference in 1880, the Institute forsook the bilingual perspective in the name of a rigid oralism, even if it produced a weird situation:
- inside the classroom signs were banned
- sign were used, thought, in the institute's life, to give internal notices, during the Mass and for confession, so every time it was important that communication was clear, without misunderstanding.
Following the unification of Italy, the National Institute of Deaf came under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Public Instruction, and it become one of the three national institutes of deaf with those of Milano and Palermo. It was named Royal Institute for deaf and dumb.
In 1889 the building that houses the school today was erected, with a capacity of up to 300 students.
In 1939 it was also activated a specialization school that was auto-financed; it was still operating until a few years ago.
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