EDST 200 Rud

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EDST 200 - Rud LECTURE SIXTEEN HISTORY OF
SPECIAL EDUCATION With thanks to Professor
Teresa Taber Doughty from whom much of this
material is drawn.
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• Background
• Some form of special education around for many
  years
• Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard (1775-1838), often called
  the father of special education.
• Introduced practices that had great influence.

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• Itard and the Wild Boy of Aveyron
• Most likely abandoned as a child, found in the
  woods.
• Itard tried to interest him (Victor) in social
  life, awaken his nervous sensibility, extend
  the range of his ideas,lead him to the use of
  speech, and make him exercise the simplest mental
  operations.
• Ideas were introduced in US by Edouard Seguin,
  one of Itards students.
• Seguin furthered educational practices for
  children with disabilities and in 1876 helped
  found the American Association on Mental
  Retardation (AAMR).

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• Itard and Seguin
• Interest in developing programs for persons with
  mental retardation.
• Montessori and the use of concrete experiences
  for the disabled.
• By the close of the 19th century, significant
  progress was made in the area of educating
  individuals with disabilities.
• Training schools.
• Establishment of classrooms, although mostly
  separate and segregated, for students who
  previously were not allowed to attend public
  school.

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• Early training programs delinquency prevention
  for students who lived in urban slum areas.
• Consisted of moral, social and vocational
  training.
• The early part of this century Compulsory
  education laws and laws promoting educational
  services for children with disabilities.
• i. Public school programs were able to exclude
  students from public schools based on their
  inability to walk or speak, or if they were not
  toilet trained.
• Children were not educated or were sent to
  residential institutions.
• Law in North Carolina Cannot enroll a
  previously excluded child with a disability in a
  public school.
• Viewed as socially deviant.

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• Education for the Deaf
• 1817 Connecticut asylum for education of deaf
  and dumb teacher Thomas Gallaudet used sign
  language.
• 1830 First state institution in Virginia.
• Primary concern was teaching industrial skills.
• 1864 Gallaudet College was chartered through
  federal legislation, with training for deaf
  teachers.
• 1870-1880s Alexander Graham Bell favored oral
  speech, not sign language.
• Early 20th Century State institutions had
  special classes in the public schools.

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• Education for the Blind
• 1829 New England Asylum for the Blind in
  Massachusetts.
• 1832 Samuel Gridley Howe founded what is today
  known as the Perkins Institute to address the
  needs of individuals who are blind.
• 1834 Louis Braille created Braille system.
• Mid 1800s Industrial focus so they could work
  in their own communities.

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• Education for the Mentally Retarded
• 1846 Massachusetts Bill for education of poor
  idiots.
• Late 1800s Asylums for children in country.
• Early 20th century Hereditarian versus
  environmental causes. Nature versus nurture.
  Eugenics Movement.
• Henry Goddard, the link to delinquency.
• Goddards Classification for feebleminded.
• Dull 80 90 IQ.
• Moron 50 70 IQ.
• Imbecile 20 50 IQ.
• Idiot Below 20 IQ.
• ii. Eugenics Movement Pictures on next three
  slides.

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Eugenics Movement

• Fitter Family Contest, Kansas, 1920

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Eugenics Movement

• Perfect Baby Contest, 1949

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Eugenics Movement

• Yea, I Have a Goodly Heritage Medal

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• Mid to late 1900s.
• 1940s Shift in language and programs.
• From mental deficiency to mental retardation.
• Special and adjustment classes, workshop schools.
• State laws expand services, such as counseling
  and special instruction.
• In some states, monies are available for special
  classes and psychological services.
• 1950s and early 1960s.
• 1957 Legislation proposed for the training of
  exceptional children.
• 1958 Legislation for training of teachers of
  mentally retarded children.
• 1961 Grants for training teachers of the deaf.

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• A Civil Rights Issue in the Mid 1960s
• More attention to mental retardation and mental
  illness
• Presidents Committee on Mental Retardation
  encouraging professionals in the field to seek
  prevention measures and annual evaluation of
  services.

• 1970s
• 1973 Vocational Rehabilitation Act -
  Discrimination tied to federal funds.

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• 1974 Educational Amendment Act for gifted
  education and due process for disabled children.
  Also known as Family Educational Rights and
  Privacy Act or FERPA.
• Financial assistance to states that provided
  services to students with exceptional needs.
• 1975 PL 94-142 or Individuals with Disabilities
  Education Act (IDEA).
• Free public education, ages 3-21.
• IEPs (Individualized Education Program) developed
  jointly.
• Least restrictive environment.
• Unbiased testing.
• Federal monies for building modification.

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• 1990s
• Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Prohibits discrimination based on disabilities in
  schools and employment.
• Must afford students an equal opportunity.
• Also faculty and staff.
• Carl D. Perkins Act of 1998.
• Make vocational and technical training available
  and accessible to persons under the ADA.
• Allow these students to compete for skilled jobs.

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• IV. Definition
• 1. What exactly is special education? According
  to the Individuals with Disabilities Education
  Act of 1997 (P.L. 105-17),
• The term special education means specially
  designed Instruction, at no cost to parents, to
  meet the unique needs of a child with a
  disability, including (A) instruction conducted
  in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and
  institutions, and in other settings and (B)
  instruction in physical education 20 U.S.C.
  1401 (25).
• V. In Class Debate
• Given what you have learned today and elsewhere
  about special education What are the reasons
  one might give to separate special education
  students from regular students in schools?
  What are the reasons one might give to have them
  in the same classroom?
• Half the class will argue for separation, half
  will argue for inclusion. Representatives may
  come to the front of the hall and use the
  overhead to make their cases.