History
Margaret S. Sterck began her career in education of the Deaf at the age of 17 in 1909 by training with Mary Garrett, a nationally known teacher and pioneer of the oral method of communication. While teaching at Miss Garrett’s school in Philadelphia, Sterck became concerned that Delaware’s children had to be educated out of state as there was no school for the Deaf in Delaware.
Through the efforts of Sterck and others, in 1929 she opened a one room school for seven students in Grace Church in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1930, Sterck purchased a house at 1414 Van Buren Street in Wilmington where she established a school on the first floor and private residence on the second. The school was incorporated in 1933 to become the Delaware School for Deaf Children, Inc. Sterck was one of the three founding incorporators and served as treasurer. In 1933, Sterck also purchased a house in Lewes, Delaware to be used as a summer camp. Sterck worked tirelessly to secure private and state funds so that all children with varying hearing levels couldattend her school. She believed deaf children had a right to communication and education equal to that of their “hearing” peers. Like many of her contemporaries, she used an oral approach to education, emphasizing speech-reading and the use of auditory skills.
Sterck taught until 1945, when state regulations forced all deaf children to be taught in schools. Some were transferred to specialized deaf programs in schools across Delaware while others went to Pennsylvania School for the Deaf (PSD) in Philadelphia. In 1960, space restrictions made PSD to bar additional deaf children from Delaware from enrolling. Parents of deaf children expressing concern led the Delaware State Board of Education to initiate plans for building a school for the deaf in the state. Funding and planning took place from 1960 to 1968. Construction was completed in 1968 and the school was open in 1969, the building was named in honor of Margaret S. Sterck.
The old Sterck School building were in used from 1968 to 2010, before moving to new location in 2011 after the completion of built new school building. In 1990s, the name of the school was changed to Delaware School for the Deaf, then it changed its school name again during built new school building; Delaware Statewide Programs for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Deaf-Blind. The school is situated near the city of Newark, in the northern part of the state where a majority of deaf children are located.
Read more about this topic: Delaware School For The Deaf
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