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Josef Smýkal
~
The Institute for the Development
and Education of the Blind
in Brno Marks its 150th year


In this book, I give a description of the history of the Institute for the Development and Education of the Blind in Brno from its founding in 1835 up to the year 1985.

After an introductory story by the blind Rudolf Krchòák Bez Hole (Without Stick) and poetry by the blind writer Eva Høibová Dotýkání (Touching) there follows an account of the dramatic circumstances under which Jan Rafael Beitl founded the institute in 1835. For my description of the subsequent development of the institute, I relied on the contributions of the individual directors who had a fundamental influence on the conception of the development and education of blind students. Furthermore, I describe the area around the several buildings in which the institute was based.

My account of the institute's development emerged from its actual environmental and real-life situations, including the roles of directors.

I devote particular attention to the periods of both world wars, during which time the institute found itself in its most challenging situations. I go on to an anabasis of the effort to secure a worthy building after the second world war. The noteworthy era of the emergence of the socialist school contributed to the closing of the institute, and its transformation into an elementary and secondary school.

The section that gives proof of the institute's (and later, school's ) significance relates the results of the pedagogical activities of the teachers and wardens. It primarily outlines the endeavours of a number of exceptional blind and visually impaired graduates, who through their own efforts achieved significant success in their lives.

The publication is amended with a list of the graduates from the institute and school and with documentary pictures.

This monograph was published in 1985 in a low-cost form of offset duplication of the typescript due to a lack of money.

Contains:185 pages



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