science

Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf

Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf rather than just read about it. In short: The Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf, commonly known as the Milan Conference or Milan Congress, was an international conference of deaf educators held in the Regio Istituto Tecnico di Santa Marta, Milan, Italy from 6 to 11 September 1880. After deliberations, the Conference declared that oral education (oralism) was superior to manual education (sign language) and passed a resolution banning th…

Key takeaways

Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf, commonly known as the Milan Conference or Milan Congress, was an international conference of deaf educators held in the Regio Istituto Tecnico di Santa Marta, Milan, Italy from 6 to 11 September 1880. After deliberations, the Conference declared that oral education (oralism) was superior to manual education (sign language) and passed a resolution banning the use of sign language in school. After its passage, various European and American schools largely switched to using speech therapy without sign language as a method of deaf education until the late 1960s and early 1970s, when sign language started to be recognised as the ideal method of deaf education. In 2010, a formal apology was made by the board at the 21st International Congress on Education of the Deaf in Vancouver, BC, Canada, acknowledging the detrimental effects of such a ban as an act of discrimination and violation of both human and constitutional rights. In 2025 the resolution that was passed in the conference of 1880 was "fully and unequivocally" renounced during the 24th International Congress on Education of the Deaf. Among the reasons given for the renunciation are the "profound and long-lasting harm caused by those resolutions, including the widespread exclusion of sign languages from educational systems and the systematic language deprivation experienced by generations of deaf children" and the acknowledgment that "these measures suppressed a natural human linguistic modality and severely restricted the ability of deaf individuals to fully exercise their human rights".

Historical background In the 1870s, Alexander Graham Bell and Edward Miner Gallaudet, both prominent US figures in deaf education, had been debating the effectiveness of oral-only education versus an education that utilises sign language as a means of visual communication. Although Bell was not an attendee at the conference himself, his oralist ideas were influential on it. The organization behind the planning of the conference was the J.R. Pereire Society, formed by Isaac and Émile Pereire the grandsons of oralist educator Jacob Rodrigues Pereira and financed by their railroad and bank holdings (including the Société Générale du Crédit Mobilier). The Pereire Society was a strong proponent of oralism and sought to have this ratified by an international conference.

First International Congress In 1878, as part of the Paris World Fair and with the assistance of the French Ministry of Education, Isaac and Émile organised the first in a series of international congresses on the "improvement of the condition of the deaf". More than fifty hearing teachers attended the first congress. Also in attendance was Joseph Marius Magnat, who would become head of an oralist school established by the brothers the following year. A consequential resolution that was passed at the Paris Congress declared that articulation and lip-reading should be the method used in deaf education, and that sign languages should only be used as an "auxiliary teaching tool", in order that deaf people might better assimilate into hearing society. It was decided that the next international congress would be held in Italy two years hence, with Magnat receiving a significant donation to organize it.

Organization The conference was planned and organized by a committee created by the Pereire Society, and was essentially an attempt by the oralist camp to legitimize an official ban of sign language from deaf education. The committee was composed of Isaac and his son Eugène Pereire, Marius Magnat, Léon Vaïsse amongst others. They secured this outcome by carefully selecting who was invited to the Milan Conference, inviting the delegates to see the self-declared oralist success in local schools, and by encouraging negative reactions to those giving speeches supporting sign language and cheering those supporting oralism.

Attendees More than half of the people invited were known oralists; therefore, the Congress was heavily inclined to the oralist camp. There were 256 attendees, with over half being Italian and just over a quarter being French. There were four deaf attendees: Claudius Forestier, Joseph Théobald - a teacher at the French Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris, James Denison - director of the Kendall School, and Lorenzo del Lupo - an Italian student.

Board of officers The elected board of the proceedings were the following:

President: Caval. Sac. Giulio Tarra - Director of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb Poor of Province of Milan. General Secretary: Professor Pasquale Fornari - Senior Teacher of the Royal School for the Deaf, Milan. Vice-President for Italy: Padre Marchiò - Master of the Institution for Deaf -Mutes, Sienna. Vice-President for France: Auguste Houdin Vice-President for Germany: Dr Treibel - Director of the Royal Institution for Deaf-Mutes, Berlin. Vice-President for the English-speaking Section: Isaac Lewis Peet - Principal of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, New York, U.S.A. Giulio Tarra has been described as an "uncompromising champion of speech and lipreading".

Delegates The Milan Conference was attended by 164 delegates of various countries. There were large delegations from Italy (87) and France (56), eight delegates from Britain, five Americans, three Swedes and 1 representative each from Belgium and Germany. The remaining delegates' nationalities are unknown. The five US delegates present were James Denison, Edward Miner Gallaudet, Reverend Thomas Gallaudet, Isaac Lewis Peet and Charles A Stoddard. There are different numbers recorded on how many deaf delegates were in attendance, but it is thought to be between one and three.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf

In research: Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1880 conferences, 1880 in Europe, 1880 in Italy, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf in simple terms?

Why does Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf.