Foundations of Special Education

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Foundations of Special Education

• Dr. Thomas G. Ryan
• 2004

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What is Special Education?

• Special Education Specially designed instruction
  to meet the unique needs and abilities of
  exceptional students.
• Special Education is relatively new.
• Historically, people with disabilities were often
  placed in hospitals, asylums, or other
  institutions that provided little, if any,
  education.

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For instance, Ancient Greece

• Physicians
• Hippocrates
• Mental Disorders
• Mania
• Melancholia
• Phrenitis
• Hysteria

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Ancient Greece - Praxis

• Physicians
• Balance of Humors
• Black bile Melancholia
• Yellow bile anxieties
• Blood mood swings
• Phlegm ?
• Treatment
• massage / diet /exercise

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Greece

• Philosophers Apply knowledge
• Socrates "Know thyself"
• Epistemology
• Revelation insight, intuition
• Rationalism logic, if x then y
• Empiricism science of computation

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Socrates Teacher/Philosopher
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Greek Philosophers

• Socrates "Know thyself"
• Treatment Knowledge
• Reason to understand
• Plato -- "Forms" - Emotions
• Knowledge (reason)
• Treatment
• Education /Insight of psyche or mind (Socratic
  method)
• "Sophronesterim" (house of moderation)

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Philosophers History

• Aristotle - "Empiricism"
• Hot bile suicide and sexual impulse
• Rise of the Roman Empire - Social
• Greek decline ( "Post Aristotle" )
• Epicurus
• Cynics
• Skepticism
• Stoicism no emotion
• Disability not able
• Cicero
• Galen

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3rd to the 17th Century

• "Dark Ages - Germanic tribes bring downfall of
  roman empire
• Middle Ages - Renaissance and Reformation
  Rebirth
• High Middle Ages - Bonadventure (1221-1274)
• Soul and body distinct
• Soul w/ body knows external world
• Soul also knows spiritual world
• Aquinas (1225-1275)

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High Middle Ages

• Roger Bacon (1214-1292) Bartholomaeus Angelicus
  (1275)
• "Madness is infection of the foremost cell of the
  head... melancholy is the infection of the middle
  cell of the head...in the beginning the patient's
  head be shaven, and washed in lukewarm vinegar,
  and that he be kept or bound in a dark place...
  diverse shapes of faces and semblance of painting
  shall not be shewed tofore him...he shall be let
  of blood in a vain in the forehead, and bled as
  much as will fill an egg-shell... with ointments
  and balming men shall labour to bring him
  asleep...the head that is shaven shall be
  plastered with lungs of swine... or of a
  sheep...if the woodeness wildness dureth three
  days without sleep, there is no hope of
  recovery." Book VII, De Proprietatibus Rerum

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Teacher/Philosopher

• Bacon, Roger (1214?-1294), English Scholastic
  philosopher and scientist, one of the most
  influential teachers of the 13th century

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Reformation

• Treatment - First asylum in Spain 1408/9 Valencia
  
• Moving into the scientific revolution
• 1533 Montaigne - 1600 Gilbert publishes de
  Magnate - 1609 Galileo
• 1610 Alonso Salagner witch trials without
  torture
• 1616 Harvey and blood circulation
• mid late 1600's outlaw burning of witches

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Jean Marc Gaspard

• French physician and educator Jean Marc Gaspard
  Itard was one of the earliest teachers to argue
  that special teaching methods could be effective
  in educating disabled children. In 1801 Itard
  discovered a young boy roaming wild in the woods
  of France. Between 1801 and 1805 Itard used
  systematic techniques to teach the boy, named
  Victor, how to communicate with others and how to
  perform daily living skills, such as dressing
  himself.

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Edouard Séguin

• In 1848 French psychologist Edouard Séguin, who
  had studied with Itard, immigrated to the United
  States and developed several influential
  guidelines for educating children with special
  needs. Séguins education programs stressed the
  importance of developing independence and
  self-reliance in disabled students by presenting
  them with a combination of physical and
  intellectual tasks.

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1816

• In 1816 American minister and educator Thomas
  Hopkins Gallaudet established the first public
  school for deaf students in the United States.

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1829

• The first school for blind students in the United
  States was founded in 1829 in Boston by American
  physician John Dix Fisher. The school is known
  today as Perkins School for the Blind and is
  located in Watertown, Massachusetts. Special
  education classes within regular school programs
  began at the beginning of the 20th century.

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Ryerson, Adolphus Egerton (1803-1882),

• Canadian educator instrumental in establishing
  general free education in Canada.
• The public school system of Ontario was
  established on the basis of Ryerson's Report
  (1846), which he published after studying the
  British and Continental school systems. By 1871
  the goal of general free education had been
  reached in Upper Canada (Ontario).

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Helen Keller A. Graham Bell

• In 1882, a baby girl caught a fever that was so
  fierce she nearly died. She survived, but the
  fever left its mark. She could no longer see or
  hear. Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in
  Alabama, the daughter of a newspaper editor.
  There has never been a precise diagnosis of the
  type and cause of the fever that struck Helen
  (Royal National Institute for the blind, 1995).
  The Kellers sought advice and remedies for Helen.
  As she approached the age of 7, they visited
  Alexander Graham Bell in Washington, DC. An
  activist in deaf education, Bell recommended
  they send Helen to the Perkins School for the
  Blind in Boston. A recent graduate of the
  school, Anne Sullivan, also known as Annie, was
  offered to tutor Helen. In March 1887, Annie
  arrived in Tuscumbia, Alabama to live with the
  Kellers as governess she graduated!

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Hellen Keller
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Radcliffe did not want her!

• While still at Radcliffe College, Helen began her
  writing career which continued for 50 years.
  Helen proved to be a remarkable scholar. She had
  phenomenal memory as well as shy determination to
  succeed. While she was still at college she wrote
  The Story of my Life which was an immediate
  success (Tragedy to Triumph, no date). She
  went on to write 11 other books and numerous
  articles on blindness, deafness, social issues
  and womens rights. She graduated cum laude in
  1904.

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http//www.graceproducts.com/ keller/life.html

• In 1921, the American Foundation for the Blind
  (AFB) was organized. Helen was invited to be
  spokesperson for the organization. She traveled
  extensively giving speeches and raising funds for
  the blind (R.N.I B, 2001). She became a
  suffragette and a socialist, demanding equal
  rights for women and working-class people.
• Helen Keller lived on into retirement. She often
  walked the grounds of Arcan Ridge and could be
  seen talking to herself with her fingers
  (R.N.I.B, 2001). She died in the afternoon of
  June 1, 1968, just before her 88th birthday.

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Progressive Movement in Education 1920s

• Many would call the decade of the American 1920s
  the decade of the Progressive Movement in
  Education. Progressive education espoused an
  experiential philosophy an education derived
  more from the student than from the teacher. It
  was a student-driven, student-centered concept of
  education that attempted to foster the precarious
  balance between individualism and collectivism.
  It was a grand and idealistic experiment, indeed.
  Leading this pedagogical foray was the
  unassuming, bespectacled former school teacher,
  John Dewey. It may be argued that Dewey
  single-handedly moved notions of progressive
  education into the educational forefront often
  with both criticism and cynicism.

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John Dewey Philosopher/Teacher
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Skinner - Behaviour

• Burrhus Frederick (Fred) Skinner was born on
  March 20, 1904 in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. He
  completed his undergraduate degree in English at
  Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. Upon
  graduation Fred attempted to write a novel with
  little success and decided to pursue studies in
  Psychology where he was introduced to Watsons
  book Behaviorism and found himself intrigued with
  an empirical, scientific approach. After reading
  Bertrand Russells book Philosophy (1927) with
  his references to mentalistic terms in
  behavioristic ways, Skinner referred to himself
  becoming an instant behaviorist (Skinner,
  1988). In his readings he also became interested
  in the work of the Russian Physiologist Ivan
  Pavlov who was studying conditioned reflexes at
  the time.

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B.F. Skinner - Behaviorist
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APA award - Skinner

• At the American Psychological Association (APA)
  annual conference in August, 1990 he received an
  unprecedented award of Citation for Outstanding
  Lifetime Contribution to Psychology. He died a
  few days later at the age of 86 on August 18,
  1990.

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Universal Declaration of Human Rights - 1948

• On December 10, 1948, the international community
  adopted the Universal Declaration of Human
  Rights, which recognized the common inherent
  dignity and equal and inalienable rights of all
  people around the world. The Universal
  Declaration of Human Rights was prepared under
  the chairmanship of former U.S. First Lady
  Eleanor Roosevelt. The document was passed
  unanimously by the UN General Assembly in
  December 1948.

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Article 26 1948 U.N.

• Everyone has the right to education. Education
  shall be free, at least in the elementary and
  fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be
  compulsory. Technical and professional education
  shall be made generally available and higher
  education shall be equally accessible to all on
  the basis of merit.
• Education shall be directed to the full
  development of the human personality and to the
  strengthening of respect for human rights and
  fundamental freedoms. It shall promote
  understanding, tolerance and friendship among all
  nations, racial or religious groups, and shall
  further the activities of the United Nations for
  the maintenance of peace.
• Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of
  education that shall be given to their children

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Blackboard Jungle 1950s

• The movie Blackboard Jungle is hard hitting and
  probably a better representation of juvenile
  delinquency in the nineteen fifties than Rebel
  Without A Cause or The Wild One. The story
  revolves around an idealistic teacher on his
  first job in a tough urban all male high school. 
  The teacher, Richard Dadier, is played by Glenn
  Ford who performs the role almost too passively. 
  He is surrounded by apathetic teachers and a
  principle (Mr. Warneke, played by John Hoyt) who
  has trouble admitting that the school has
  discipline problems. The movie is based on the
  novel The Blackboard Jungle by Evan Hunter.

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Teacher Student Relations
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The Report of the Provincial Committee on Aims
and Objectives of Education in the Schools of
Ontario Hall-Dennis 1968 - Purpose

• to identify the needs of the child as a person
  and as a member of society
• to set forth the aims of education for the
  educational system of the Province
• to outline objectives of the curriculum for
  children in the age groups presently designated
  as Kindergarten, Primary and Junior Divisions
• to propose means by which these aims and
  objectives may be achieved
• to submit a report for the consideration of the
  Minister of Education.

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Jerome Bruener

• 1961
• Jerome Bruner, one of the architects of Head
  Start, publishes TheProcess of Education
• This year, Harvard psychology professor Jerome
  Bruner publishes The Process of Education, a book
  that would be reprinted many times during the
  decade and would influence a whole generation of
  educators in the Canada and elsewhere.
• Bruner divides the process of education into four
  basic parts structure, readiness for learning,
  intuitive thinking, and motives for learning.
  These form the major chapter headings for the
  book.

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Benjamin Bloom publishes Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives The Classification of Educational
Goals

• 1965, Benjamin Bloom publishes a book that would
  largely influence curriculum theory and practice
  for many years. Indeed, the book was published
  several times and translated into several
  languages, and it was read in faculties of
  education, teacher training programs and schools
  all over the world. The book influenced almost
  every aspect of formal education, from the way
  curricula were designed at national and
  provincial ministries of education to the way
  teachers were evaluating student performance at
  the classroom level. It is well known that Bloom
  and his associates identified three main domains
  of educational goals cognitive, affective and
  psychomotor. What is not well known is the
  history that led to the development of this
  framework.

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Indian Control of Indian Education - 1972

• In 1972, the Chiefs of the National Indian
  Brotherhood adopted the first written policy on
  Indian education, entitled Indian Control of
  Indian Education. It was presented to Minister
  Jean Chretien, of Indian Affairs and Northern
  Development, on December 21, 1972. This policy
  was written as a comprehensive position paper
  that articulated principles of local control,
  parental responsibility and culturally based
  curriculum. "We want education to provide the
  setting in which our children can develop the
  fundamental attitudes and values which have an
  honoured place in Indian tradition and culture."
  (National Indian Brotherhood, 1972, p.2)

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Parti Québecois - 1977

• Parti Québecois enacts Bill 101, restricting
  access to an education in English
• Designed to preserve and enhance the French
  language in the province of Québec, Bill 101 was
  passed into law on August 26, 1977, continuing
  the centuries-long quest to make Canadas largely
  francophone province as French as possible.

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Phase 1 1980-1991

• Amendments to the Education Act, (Revised
  Statutes of Ontario, 1980 more commonly referred
  to as Bill 82) brought into place mandatory
  instead of permissive requirements for special
  education, including a committee procedure for
  determining the eligibility of students for
  special education placement

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1980 Act

• The 1980 Act was also innovative in mandating
  universal access, and a right of appeal provision
  whereby parents could appeal the designation of
  their child as "exceptional" and the proposed
  educational placement for the child.

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Court Challenges 1980s

• The 1980 Act included a provision for parental
  choice, with an appeals and Tribunals hearing
  procedure to deal with disputes between the board
  and parents, but the system was biased in
  over-representing the School Board on the Appeal
  hearing panel, and the only issues open to
  dispute were the designation as exceptional and
  the placement of the student. Parents could not,
  and still cannot, appeal the nature and content
  of the programs or services provided by the
  school within the placement (Metcalf, 1987). In
  Booth's (2000) terms, the Act provided for access
  to but not participation in educational programs.

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Fully Implemented by 1985

• This was challenged in the Ontario Court of
  Appeal (Dolmage v. Muskoka Board of Education and
  the Ministry of Education, (1985), 49 O.R. (2d)
  546 (Div. Ct.)) in which the parents lost, but
  not without an obiter dictum statement in the
  judgment that led to further Tribunal hearings
  and challenges in the courts (Barger v. North
  York Board of Education, 27th June, 1984,
  Regional Special Education Tribunal Ormerod v.
  Wentworth (County) Board of Education, 5 June
  1987,Regional Special Education Tribunal Hysert
  v. Carleton Board of Education, 8752, Ont. H.C.)
  that loosened the restrictive qualities of the
  right of appeal provision.

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Parents fight for Inclusion!

• The Education Act (R.S.O.1980) was fully
  implemented in 1985 after a phase-in period,
  concurrent with the repatriation of the Canadian
  Constitution to Ottawa from Westminster, and the
  establishment of the Canadian Charter of Rights
  and Freedoms. The latter contains an equity
  clause, 15, prohibiting discrimination on the
  basis of, among other things, disability. Since
  1985, the courts have been the major recourse for
  parents who had disputes about the provisions
  supplied to their children with disabilities.
  Foremost among these have been claims for
  inclusive educational placements, with
  appropriate programs and support services, such
  as the landmark case heard at the Supreme Court
  of Canada (Eaton v.Brant County, SCC 24668, 7
  Feb. 1997).Other events in the 80s included new
  perspectives. For Instance.....

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All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in
Kindergarten - 1986

• Robert Fulghum
• When Robert Fulghums book arrived in bookstores
  in 1986 it was the beginning of a publishing
  phenomenon not unlike the Harry Potter craze
  today. His humorous, gentle stories convey a
  clear message that it is important to form a
  moral code and stick to it. The short, simple
  collection of random but careful thoughts caught
  the publics imagination and surged to the top of
  the bestseller lists. The book and its sequels
  have sold 15 million copies in over 90 countries.
  Robert Fulghums uncommon ability to communicate
  his wisdom, which is primarily basic common
  sense, has made him a very wealthy man.

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All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in
Kindergarten - 1986

• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Dont hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Dont take things that arent yours.
• Say youre sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced lifelearn some and think some
  and draw and paint and sing and dance and play
  and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out into the world, watch out for
  traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder.

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Changes 1991-1995 Ontario

• Under a left-leaning provincial government ,
  elected on an equity and social justice platform,
  the out-of-court settlement of one such court
  case led to a statement by the Ministry of
  Education in June 1994, that was the first
  official indication that Ontario schools should
  consider inclusion the integration of
  exceptional pupils into local community
  classrooms should be the norm in Ontario,
  wherever possible, when such a placement meets
  the pupil's needs and where it is according to
  parental choice...We recognize that an integrated
  setting will not be appropriate for every child"
  (Memorandum to Directors, Superintendents, and
  Principals, June 9th 1994).

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Ontario Education - Tensions

• In effect, the Ontario Education Act, as amended
  in 1980, promoted categorical identification,
  programs that were at the discretion of the
  school system, and parental choice that was
  limited to the two technicalities, the
  categorical designation of the student as
  exceptional, and the placement of that student.
  Both of these could be stated in terms such as
  "the student has a learning disability and will
  be placed in a class for students with learning
  disabilities". The parents' rights to challenge
  the decision recommended by the school board were
  limited to that wording and not to any of the
  programs and services available in that
  classroom.

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MOE inflexible!

• Special education programs and services appeared
  in the Act only as definitions and were not
  mandatory, leaving their implementation to the
  discretion of the school board. Consequently, the
  provisions in the I.E.P. including such services
  as speech training and counseling, and personnel
  such as interpreters, social workers and
  consultants to teachers for hearing impairment,
  low vision and behavioral difficulties could not
  be challenged by parents through appeals.

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Labels, Categories Past era

• The twelve categories of disability, under five
  headings (intellectual, communicational,
  behavioral, physical and multiple) were defined
  by the Ministry, (Handbook for Special Education,
  1984) and their use was required during annual
  school board reports of category counts, even
  though the prevailing government had made a major
  shift in recognizing the rights of parents to
  have their child placed in inclusive settings.
  The categories continue to this day to be the
  criteria used to allocate special educational
  resource supplements to the school systems in
  Ontario.

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1990,s, 1995 Election P.C.

• The Harris government was elected on a platform
  of lowered taxes, school reform and greater
  public accountability. It represents a major
  swing to the right compared with earlier
  governments, and is committed to balanced
  budgets, increased competition and privatization,
  devolution of control to local school councils of
  elected parents, while retaining resource
  allocation at the centre with stringent auditing.

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Mike Harris North Bay to ?

• Mike Harris looks tough, talks tough and for
  nearly seven years has run a tough government in
  Ontario that has influenced cost-cutting
  governments across the country.

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Turbulence 1995 to present!

• Inclusive classrooms have become the norm for
  fiscal rather than moral reasons. Ontario teacher
  morale is at an all time low. Teachers are
  leaving the profession in significant numbers
  fueled in part by an early retirement incentive,
  but also by a professional perspective that is at
  odds with the paradigm shift to the right. They
  do not know how to cope with the multiple
  innovations being demanded of them. In 1997 eight
  major reform initiatives were implemented that
  touched every corner of the teaching profession,
  and in the Fall of 1998 the province's teachers
  staged an illegal work stoppage, illegal since
  they walked out on their contract with their
  employers, the school boards.

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Liberals take root!

• "We want to make sure that money is focused on
  the priorities we share -- and the results we
  need. Lets deliver excellence for all in our
  public schools...the health care we need...clean,
  safe communities that work."Dalton McGuinty

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End Recursive?