Vasile Adamescu | |
---|---|
Born | September 5, 1944 Borcea |
Died | December 6, 2018 (aged 74) Cluj-Napoca |
Occupation | Teacher |
Vasile Adamescu (5 September 1944 – 6 December 2018) was a Romanian educator. Deafblind from age two, Adamescu taught children with sensory deficiencies. He was awarded the Romanian National Order of Merit in 2013.
Vasile Adamescu was born in Borcea, a commune in Călărași County, southeast Romania, on 5 September 1944. [1] Vasile was the second child born to his parents, Zamfir and Voica; his mother died when he was an infant. [2] At age two he lost his sight and hearing after contracting meningitis. [1] He received no schooling until age eleven, when his father brought him to the School for the Visually Impaired in Cluj. [3] Some teachers at the school were reluctant to accept Adamescu, as they thought he would be better placed at a school for the deaf. [4] The principal of the school taught him the manual alphabet, and Florica Sandu, a special education teacher, taught him to speak, read, and write. [5] Adamescu wrote about his education: [4]
One day, while I was studying in the school museum, it occurred to my teacher to teach me the letter f. Every time I tried to associate a word with the letter I was learning. Initially she showed me the position of the teeth and tongue, necessary for the pronunciation of this letter, after which she lit a match and handed it to me to make me understand that f is the first letter of the word fire. I got scared and dropped the match over the old carpets in the museum. I then bent down, trying to find it. I knew the idea of fire, but I didn't know what word it was associated with. A story came to my mind from Borcea, my native village, when, by mistake, without knowing what I was doing, I set fire to the stable. This was when I began to understand that every object has a name. From now on I was curious to know the name of each object around me.
Adamescu graduated middle school in 1967 and from the Special High School for the Blind in Cluj in 1973. [4] That summer, he began studies at the Department of Defectology in the Faculty of History-Philosophy at Babeș-Bolyai University. [4] He was one of the first to graduate from the newly renamed Department of Psychopedagogy in 1977, graduating with an average of 9.75 out of 10. [2] [5]
Adamescu was also an artist who worked with modeling in clay. [4] Between 1983 and 1986 he attended the folk school of fine arts in Cluj-Napoca, focusing on sculpture. [4] He created many forms in clay work, including busts, animals, and buildings. [2] An exhibition of Adamescu's work sponsored by the ASTRA Museum in Sibiu was held in 2014, featuring over 80 of his fired and unfired clay figures. [2]
Adamescu was a teacher at the high school he attended, the Special High School for the Blind in Cluj-Napoca, from 1977 to 2004. [1] He prioritized the education of children with sensory deficiencies. [5]
After his retirement in 2004, he continued to advocate for those with sensory deficiencies. [4] Adamescu participated in international conferences, giving televised interviews, and consulting with educators and students. [4] In 2015 he became a member of the board of directors of Sense International Romania, a nonprofit organization dedicated to those with deafblindness. [6] He also ran free pottery workshops with the visually impaired and deaf and hard of hearing. [2]
He published his autobiography, Înfruntând viața (Facing Life), in three volumes, published in 2013, 2018, and 2020. [4] The work took about ten years to write; the text was written in Braille and transcribed on a computer. [7] It was the first book in Romania written by a deafblind person. [7]
Adamescu died in Cluj-Napoca on 6 December 2018. [8]
He was named the Honorary Citizen of Cluj-Napoca in 2010. [2] Sense International Romania named Adamescu a Promoter of the Rights of People with Deafblindness in 2018. [6]
In 2013, Romanian President Traian Băsescu awarded Adamescu the National Order of Merit at the level of Knight in recognition of his dedication to educating people with disabilities. [7]