The link of special
education and general education is perhaps the most important and prevalent
topic in special education, as well as in my own educational experience.
History has demonstrated that the two have never had an easy, simple
connection. When it comes to educational policy, educational practices, and special education services done by human educators on
both sides of the isle, such as myself, there has been a lot of giving and
taking, or perhaps I should say pulling and pushing.
Students with disabilities
have lived in every era and in every community, despite the fact that required
special education is relatively recent in the United States.
Development of the Field of Special Education
Leaders of social change
pushed out to fix many of society's flaws when it began in the early nineteenth
century. Itard, Edouard O. Seguin (1812–1880), Samuel Gridley Howe (1801–1876),
and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787–1851) were among the physicians and clergy
who desired to improve the neglected, often brutal treatment of people with
disabilities. Individuals with disabilities were frequently held in jails and
almshouses without adequate food, clothing, personal cleanliness, or exercise
in the 1800s, according to a large body of literature.
Professionals felt that
individuals with disabilities were best treated in residential facilities in
rural settings for much of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century.
Environmental factors such as urban poverty and vices, according to proponents
of these organisations, cause behavioural disorders. Dorothea Dix (1802–1887),
for example, persuaded state governments to support larger, more specialised institutes.State
governments developed juvenile courts and social welfare programmes for
children and adolescents, including foster homes, at the end of the nineteenth
century. In the early twentieth century, the child study movement got popular.
Researchers endeavoured to investigate child development scientifically in
relation to education, using the technique pioneered by G.
The History of Special
Education in Schools and Institutions
Although Itard was unable
to normalise Victor, Averyon's wild boy, he was able to influence Victor's
conduct dramatically via education. Itard's work marks the beginning of
extensive attempts to educate pupils with disabilities, and his work can be
traced back to him. Gallaudet created the American Asylum for the Education and
Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb (now known as the American School for the
Deaf) in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1817, as the country's first special
education school. Special educational programmes were available in several
asylums by the middle of the nineteenth century.
Moral counselling included
a significant amount of education. Special classes within ordinary public
schools had been established in major cities by the end of the nineteenth
century. These special programmes were created to help immigrant children who
didn't speak English well and students with slight mental retardation or
behavioural issues. Steamer children, backw
The History of Legislation in Special Education
Although many people
believe that special education began in 1975 with the passage of the Education
for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA), it is obvious that special educators
were responding to the needs of disabled children in public schools nearly a
century before. It's also evident that EAHCA didn't appear out of nowhere. This
historic statute arose naturally from events in both special education and
society, and was made possible in large part by the efforts of grassroots
organisations made up of both parents and experts. The American Association of
Instructors of the Blind and the American Association on Mental Deficiency
(formerly the American Association on Mental Deficiency) were founded in the
1870s.Advocacy groups pushed to get local ordinances that would protect and
support people with disabilities in their communities during the first half of
the twentieth century. In Peoria, Illinois, for example, the first white cane
ordinance guaranteed blind people the right-of-way when crossing the street in
1930. By the mid-century, every state had passed legislation allowing students
with impairments to attend school. Legislation was, however, still optional. In
the late 1950s, government funds were set aside for the education of disabled
children and the training of special educators.
Trends in Special Education
The history of special
education has been structured in stages to emphasise the numerous trends that
have occurred in the profession. Although some of these conceptualizations are
concerned with adjustments in instructional interventions for students with
abilities, others are concerned with the location of interventions. The
emphasis on placement reflects the dispute that has dogged the field of special
education throughout its history. In the eighteenth century, Samuel G. Howe was
one of the first to suggest that instructional venues had inherent traits that
alone guaranteed effective interventions. The late-nineteenth-century fight for
bigger and better institutions, as well as the mid-twentieth-century push for
deinstitutionalization, were both fueled by a belief in the intrinsic
therapeutic qualities of place.Many professionals were sidetracked by a
singular focus on the value of location, preventing them from understanding
that the push for deinstitutionalization was accompanied by significant
philosophical shifts.
Controversial Issues in Special Education
Throughout history,
special education has been a source of criticism. Some of the criticism was
justified, and others were not. Some complaints exposed ineffective methods,
such as the ineffectiveness and inhumanity of confining all people with
disabilities in facilities. Other complaints included a sole focus on the
importance of place while ignoring other unsuitable practices, which had
terrible consequences. New criticisms of special education were made at the
turn of the twenty-first century. Some argue that using diagnostic labels can
be stigmatising to students, while others argue that minority students are
overrepresented in some disability categories, and still others argue that educating students with disabilities in
special classes and schools, including pulling students out for resource
classes, is akin to segregation.Some of these criticisms may draw attention to
ineffective practises, while others may simply divert educators' attention away
from the task of identifying and implementing successful instructional
strategies.