The education of the blind in Brazil during the 19th century: Revisiting history

Abstract

The Imperial Instituto dos Meninos Cegos was the first school organization founded in Brazil specifically for the education of people with visual impairment, providing primary, musical, vocational and some areas of secondary education. The objective of this research is to present and analyze the organizational structure of the Imperial Instituto dos Meninos Cegos, an institution founded in 1854 that used the simultaneous teaching method and was under the direct protection of the Emperor until the collapse of the monarchy. For this, this work consists of a documental research (Gil, 2002) carried out based on primary sources located at the Arquivo Nacional (National Archive), Biblioteca Nacional (National Library), Almanak Laemmert, and from bibliographic sources, such as: Aranha (2006), Araújo (1993), Jannuzzi (2004), Mazzotta (2001), Penna (2008), Veiga (2007) and Zeni (1997, 2005). The geographic and temporal cutoff of the research is Rio de Janeiro, during the second half of the 19th century, when the first educational institution for the visually impaired was born in the capital of the Empire. The primary sources analyzed consisted mainly of reports from the Institute’s managers and the Ministers and Secretaries of Business of the Empire, responsible for monitoring the education. The Imperial Instituto dos Meninos Cegos established the basis for the education of the blind in Brazil, which, despite giving some autonomy and providing the intellectual development of its students, has been criticized for its asylum characteristics, present in its practices throughout its history.