João de Deus (method)
Original title: João de Deus (Método de)
How João de Deus's reading method (Cartilha Maternal) was introduced to Madeira from 1879, through the teacher Teodoro João Henriques sent by Funchal council.
On 1 September 1879 the Count of Carvalhal (‘oak grove’), president of the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal), sent an official letter to Dr João de Deus introducing the teacher Teodoro João Henriques, whom the Council had commissioned to study the new method of teaching children to read devised by that distinguished poet and zealous apostle of popular education. Henriques spent some months in Lisbon. On his return to Madeira it was he who spread among state and private teachers the teaching method he had learned from the illustrious author of the Cartilha Maternal.