The Regulation of Deaf Teachings in the Public Instruction Act of 1857. Background

Abstract

If the Public Instruction Act of 1857 is the legal expression of the Spanish moderate liberals regarding the construction of a national school, the rules governing for first time the teachings for the deaf-mutes in this Act, too shall be those who seek to establish the conditions for a «deaf-mutes» national teaching. The ideas behind this regulation will be considered acceptably modern and the precursors of the nowadays regulation (adaptation of the teachings for the deaf, double network of special and ordinary schools, etc.). Unfortunately this Act will be repeatedly carried out wrongly and will be constantly amended. When the first general statutory regulation of deaf teachings occurs in 1857, Spain already has a broad experience of more than 50 years dealing with deaf teachings in scholar environmnet. This activity, to some extent, is represented in the Regulations of the National Association of the Deaf in Madrid, which will have a manifested impact on the rules related with these teachings in the Public Instruction Act of 1857.