ROMAGNOLI, AUGUSTO. - Apostle of the new education of the blind, b. in Bologna on 19 July 1879, with a conjunctivitis that made him lose his sight after a few days, d. in Rome on 8 March 1946.
At the age of five he entered the Institute for the Blind in Bologna, and then managed to follow classical studies in the public schools, obtaining, at the age of 21, the liceo diploma. At 19 he felt moved to publish a program for the reform of the education imparted to the blind; and studying its psychology in himself he gathered his observations and deductions in his philosophy thesis (1905), later published under the title Introduzione all'educazione dei ciechi. From then on R. devoted his entire life to the mission of making the blind men among men. During the Fifth National Congress of the Blind in Rome (Dec. 1906), he moved to a vigorous affirmation of his principles, which aroused many echoes and already marked him out as the herald of the redemption of the blind. In the article Dalla pietà alla scienza. I ciechi non saranno infelici (Nuova Antologia, 1 July 1908) he maintained the necessity that the education of the blind should start from the concept, not of alleviating an irreparable misfortune, but of healing it, making those struck by it take the fullest consciousness of it, so that they may learn to draw from it all its lessons and hidden resources, together with the numerous physical, intellectual and moral compensations that education must develop. Meanwhile he offered himself as an example of how a blind man, educated according to these principles, could live and work among the sighted, obtaining the right — the first among blind professors — to teach the sighted, in the chair of philosophy at Massa (1908), at Rieti (1911), at Lanciano (1920). And he even came to found the Society of Italian Blind Teachers, of which he became president (1910).
In 1912 Queen Margherita entrusted him with conducting, in the Margherita di Savoia hospice for the blind in Rome, an experiment of the new education he advocated. He then went on to apply his method in the House for the re-education of the war blind. With the help of Carlo Delcroix and Aurelio Nicolodi he obtained, in 1923, the law on compulsory schooling for blind children; in 1924 the assignment to conduct an inspection of all Italian institutes for the blind and to formulate a plan of reforms, from which was born the Ordinance on the Elementary Instruction of the Blind, promulgated in June; and that of organizing and then directing the Royal Method School for the educators of the blind in Rome, in which he remained until his death, assisted by his wife Dr. Elena Coletta. He published in the volume Ragazzi ciechi (Bologna 1924) a report of the educational experiment conducted from 1912 to 1916 and, in a 2nd ed., the fundamental work Introduzione all'educazione dei ciechi, with notable additions and the new title of Pagine vissute di un educatore cieco (1943).
He had a profound, conscious Catholic faith from his earliest youth, having considered the religious problem as the first to be solved among all the problems that blindness presents; a life strictly consistent with the faith professed: in every moment and in every environment.
Bibliography4 works
Mario Bellini