A Historical Background of Special Education

1
A Historical Background of Special Education

• Jeff McNair
• California Baptist University,
• Riverside, California

2
Who are people with disabilities?

• Mentally handicapped people are still hidden
  from history as they are from the rest of life.
  What history they do have is not so much theirs
  as the history of others either acting on their
  behalf or against them Ryan and Thomas (1987)

3
Ancient perspectives

• Greeks
• Christ
• Middle Ages
• Overall
• Devils or Angels

4
Angel vs. Devil

• Angels . . .
• Mutterings revelations
• Benefit through alms
• Children of Great Spirit
• Angels from heaven

• Devils
• Changelings
• Martin Luther
• Punishment for sins
• Intercourse with devil

5
Progress being made, however

• 1500s organic basis to disability
• 1600s weakly prolific, too much time devoted to
  the mind
• 1800s things start happening

6
Wild boy of Aveyron

• Captured by hunters, taken to Abbe Bonaterre

7
Description of Wild Boy
. . . He is unusual to our food, selecting his
nourishment by smell but at the same time
indifferent to fragrant or foul odors lying flat
on the ground to drink tearing garments placed
upon him and trying constantly to escape walking
often on all fours fighting with his teeth
giving few marks of intelligence having no
articulate language even devoid of the faculty of
speech. It was later discovered that the boys
hearing was insensitive to loud noises and to
music yet he readily heard the fall of a
nut. His sense of touch was likewise deficient.
As to sight, his eyes constantly wandered and
could not be fixed on objects Bonaterre
(1798)
8
Bonaterres conclusions (1798)

• a phenomenon like this would furnish to
  philosophy and natural history important notions
  on the original constitution of man and on the
  development of his primitive facilities provided
  the state of imbecility we have noticed in this
  child does not offer an obstacle to his
  instruction.

9
Jean Itard and the wild boy

• solve the metaphysical problem of determining
  what might be the degree of intelligence, and the
  nature of ideas in the lad, who deprived from
  birth of all education should have lived entirely
  separated from the individuals if his kind
  Itard (1789)

10
Itards educational program

• Endear him to social life by making it more
  genial than the one he was living
• To awaken nervous sensibility by stimulants
• To extend the sphere of ideas by creating new
  wants
• Lead him to the use of speech
• To exercise the operations of his mind upon his
  physical wants

11
Itards results

• Sleeping and eating habits and personal hygiene
  more regular and controlled
• Senses of touch and taste became more acute
• Circle of wants increased
• Learned some monosyllabic words
• Learned to sequence objects

12
Edouard Seguin

• Student of Itard
• Developed the physiological method
• Sensory training
• Focused on touch
• Motor training
• Age appropriate activities
• Functional activities
• Work

13
Meanwhile in the USA . . .

• 1842 Horace Mann
• 1843 Hervey Wilbur
• 1846 Samuel Gridley Howe
• 1848 First state institution for training of
  idiots
• 1851 First school built exclusively for
  education of idiots
• Seguin gives speech . . .

14
Excerpt from Seguins speech
God has scattered among us-rare as the
possessors of genius-the idiot, the blind, the
deaf-mute, in order to bind the rich to the
needy, the talented to the incapable, all men to
each other, by a tie of indissoluble solidarity.
The old bonds are dissolving man is already
unwilling to continue to contribute money or
palaces for the support of the indolent
nobility but he is every day more ready to build
palaces and give annuities for the indigent or
infirm, the chosen friends of our Lord Jesus.
See that cornerstone-the token of a new alliance
between humanity and a class hitherto
neglected-that, ladies and gentlemen, is your
pride it is the greatest joy of my life for I,
too, have labored for the poor idiot.
15
Institutions

• 1890- 14 states have institution for idiots
• 1904- 21
• 1910- 26
• 1923- 40
• 1958- 47

16
Seguin Contributions

• Contributed to the humanity of idiots
• Spearheaded the education of persons with MR in
  Europe and the United States
• Develop new educational methods
• Frequent changes in activities
• Analysis of tasks into their components
• Differentiation of senses from intellect
• Physical education
• Sensory stimulation
• Employment as an outcome of education

17
Soon it was realized . . .

• SMR not curable or even greatly improvable
• Only a small number of individuals returned to
  the community
• Institutions not planned with indefinite care in
  mind

• Institutions besieged on 2 sides
• Parents wanted students retained
• Greater demand for admission of new cases

18
The ugly idiot

• Increases seen as real increase in numbers
• With urbanization more cases
• Idiot blamed for societal problems
• Idiocy result of social evil, not personal
  misfortune

19
Dr. Anne Moore (1910)
My study of the situation in New York convinces
me (1) that the horrors attendant upon
feeblemindedness have in no way been exaggerated
(2) that the condition is neither
circumscribed or local . . . (3) that there is a
crying need for concerted action toward control
of the situation. . . . Realize that the
feebleminded are a menace to our present day
civilization and that the problem of caring for
them can no longer be safely ignored. They
agree that the defect is often hereditary and
incurable, that it leads to poverty, degeneracy,
crime and disease.
20
Other developments

• 1865 Sir Francis Galton
• Eugenics movement
• 1877 Jukes study
• 1912 Kallikaks study
• Feeblemindedness is hereditary

21
Dr. Charles B. Davenport (1911)
There are laws of inheritance of general mental
ability that can be sharply expressed. Low
mentality is due to the absence of some factor,
and if this factor determines normal
development is lacking in both parents, it will
be lacking in their offspring. Two mentally
defective parents will produce only mentally
defective offspring. This is the first law of
inheritance of mental ability . . .the second law
of heredity is that, aside from Mongolians,
probably no imbecile is born except of parents
who, if not mentally defective themselves, both
carry mental defect in their germ plasm.
22
Other statements . . .

• Feeblemindedness associated with great physical
  strength
• Breed rapidly
• Natural selection keeps feeblemindedness down
• Philanthropy and charity have favored
  multiplication
• By 1900, estimated 12,000 idiots in institutions
• 1915 with intelligence testing, est. 400,000
  individuals

23
Solutions

• Lifelong segregation during the reproductive
  period
• Sterilization
• This remedy must in the opinion of this
  committee be the principal agent used by society
  in cutting off the supply of defectives
  (Eugenics section of the American Breeders
  Association, 1911)

24
Sterilization

• 1907 Indiana has first sterilization law
• 1909 California and Connecticut
• 1911 New Jersey and Iowa
• 1926 23 states have sterilization laws
• By 1955, 29,512 sterilizations had been
  performed - the most from California (503)
• Why so few?

25
Mitigating factors in sterilization

• Attitudes of institution superintendents
• of surgeons down during war
• Religious groups fought it
• Violation of individual rights
• 1927 test case goes before the Supreme Court

26
Supreme Court Justice Holmes, May 2, 1927
We have seen more than once that the public
welfare may call upon the best citizens for their
lives. It would be strange if it could not call
upon those who already sap the strength of the
State for these lesser sacrifices, often not
felt to be such by those concerned, in order to
prevent our being swamped with incompetents. It
is better for the world, if instead of waiting
to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to
let them starve for their imbecility, society can
prevent those who are manifestly unfit from
continuing their kind. The principle that
sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough
to cover the cutting of Fallopian tubes . . .
Three generations of imbeciles are enough.
27
At the same time, new evidence coming to light .
. .
Part 1 As a matter of fact, my own observations
show that, in relation to the total number of
those who are the offspring of certifiably defecti
ve parent or parents, is extremely small . . . It
follows that if every defective in existence a
generation ago had been sterilized, the number of
defectives today would not have been appreciably
diminished. It also follows that if every
defective not existing were sterilized, the
result a generation hence would be insignificant.
In short, in order to produce any
marked decrease in the total number of mental
defectives a generation hence, it would be
necessary to sterilize or otherwise prevent the
propagation of, not merely those who are
themselves . . .
28
At the same time, new evidence coming to light .
. .
Part 2 defectives, but all those who are
carriers that is to say every person suffering
from germ vitiation. Obviously, this is
not merely impracticable, but impossible . . .We
are compelled to conclude, therefore, that from
the point of view of prevention, sterilization
would not do what is claimed for it and its
results would be relatively slight. (Tredgold,
1920)
29
With increased scientific knowledge

• Perception changed from MR as
• Widespread threat
• To sick and useless
• At birth, sent to the institution and forgotten

30
The horror comes to light

• President Kennedy - sister
• Geraldo Rivera
• Burton Blatt
• Wyatt v. Stickney, 1972
• Lessard v. Schmidt, 1972
• Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens
  (PARC) v. Commonwealth of Pensylvania, 1972
• Welsch v. Likens, 1974
• Halderman et al. V. Penhurst State School, 1978

31
Wyatt v. Stickney, 1972
-No borderline or mildly retarded persons shall
be a resident of the institution. -No person
shall be admitted to the institution unless a
prior determination shall have been made that
residence in the institution is the least
restrictive habilitation setting. -Residents
shall have a right to the least restrictive
conditions necessary to achieve the purpose of
habilitation. To this end, the institution shall
make every attempt to move residents
from A) more to less structured
living B) larger to smaller facilities C) larg
er to smaller living units D) group to
individual residence E) segregated from the
community to integrated living.
32
Halderman et al. v. Pennhurst State School
Further, the court found that principles of equal
protection prohibit segregation of the retarded
in an isolation of clearly separate and not equal
facilities such as Pennhurst where habilitation
does not measure up to the minimal adequate
standards. Moreover the court found that under
section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,
unnecessarily separate services are
discriminatory and unlawful. Pennhurst, as an
institution for the retarded, is a monumental
example of unconstitutionality with respect to
the habilitation of the retarded. As such it
must be expeditiously replaced with appropriate
community-based mental retardation programs and
facilities designed to meet the individual needs
of each class member.
33
Others . . .
No person shall be admitted unless he is
dangerous to himself or others.   No person
classified as borderline, mildly or moderately
retarded according to the standards of
classification at Cambridge shall be admitted
unless that person suffers from psychiatric or
emotional disorders in addition to his
retardation. (Lessard v. Schmidt, 1972)   No
mentally retarded person shall be admitted to
Cambridge State Hospital on civil commitment if
services and programs are available in the
community. (Welsch v. Likens, 1974)
34
The laws begin to change

• Rehabilitation act of 1973
• No otherwise qualified handicapped individual .
  . . shall solely by reason of his/her handicap be
  excluded from participation in, be denied the
  benefits of, or be subject to benefits of, or be
  subject to discrimination under any program or
  activity receiving federal financial assistance.

35
The laws begin to change

• Public Law 94-142 (1975) Education for all
  Handicapped Children Act
• Free and appropriate public education
• Individualized Education Plan
• Least Restrictive Environment
• Nondiscriminatory evaluation
• Procedural safeguards
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and
  others

36
The future?

• End discrimination
• Vocation
• Health care
• Service
• Greater inclusion into all aspects of society