Instruction of Students with Intellectual Disabilities

Spring 2005 Appalachian State University 1

Instruction of Students with Intellectual

Disabilities

Margaret Gessler Werts, Ph.D.

Chapter 1

Appalachian State University 2Spring 2005

History

Persons with Mental retardation have always been in the population

Mentioned in documents in tombs in Thebes

Middle Ages– Persons with Mental retardation considered angels

Ancient Egyptians placed value on children


History

Greek and Romans practiced infanticide Greece: Children considered property of

the community Killed if they had a defect Rome: Children considered property of

parents


History

Middle Ages Medical advances . Hippocrates .

Renaissance in Reformation . “many are those who are ill were not

thought to be mentally sick for as fools are of many kinds, so also are there many kinds of crazy people, not of one sort nor in one way, but in many ways of many sorts.”


History

Platter Martin Luther

“were merely a mass of flesh… with no soul.”

Salem witch trials


History

17th and 18th centuries . begging rampant Institutional death rate at 75 to 80%

Periere Taught deaf mutes Developed simple sign language

Pinel Moral treatment . Worked to free patients of asyllums



Christmas in Purgatory1974 Burton Blatt and Fred Kaplan


History


"There is a wide range among the States in the cost per day spent for the care of the mentally retarded. Six States spent less than $2.50 a day per patient, while only seven States spent over $5.50 per day. Nationally, the average is $4.55 per day, less than one-sixth of the amounts spent for general hospital care."



"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."Matthew XXV, 40



"Perfected and modified according to circumstances, chains gave way (during the early nineteenth century) to a long series of other ingenuous contrivances, all designed to limit the patient's freedom of movement. According to Oegg, restraining devices were generally thought to be as necessary for the preservation of life as eating, drinking, etc."Emil Kraepelin




Thank heaven! The crisis --The danger is passed, And the lingering illness Is over at last --And the fever called 'Living' Is conquered at last."Edgar Allen Poe



"Cast upon this globe without physical strength or innate ideas, incapable in himself of obeying the fundamental laws of this nature which call him to the supreme place in the universe, it is only in the heart of society that man can attain the pre-eminent position which is his natural destiny. With-out the aid of civilization he would be one of the feeblest and least intelligent of animals. . ."Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard



We are wrestling with our own retardation to cope, ultimately, with the retardation of others.





"There are only two things wrong with most special education for the mentally handicapped; it isn't special, and it isn't education."Alice Metzner



“Have you had a kindness shown? Pass it on.”

Henry Burton


Henry Burton


Henry Burton



"Youngsters are often not taught to feed themselves; it is easier to drape a sheet around their shoulders and arms and spoonfeed them. They are often not given furniture or toys or help; they might get hurt. The meticulous attention paid to their corporal protection is in sharp contrast to the frequent failure to recognize those important aspects of personal dignity or feeling."Lewis B. Klebanoff



"It is clear that there should be legislation about education and that it should be conducted on the public system. But consideration must be given to the question. What constitutes education and what is the proper way to be educated?"Aristotle



"A teacher who makes little or no allowance for individual differences in the classroom is an individual who makes little or no difference in the lives of his students."William Arthur Ward


Human Rights: Myth Or Reality

Rosemary F. Dybwad (1976)


Next it must be stressed that there is a marked difference between human rights and legal rights. Legal rights are either derived from specific statutes or from basic pronouncements of the judiciary, the courts. Human rights cover much broader ground. They grow out of the human existence itself, may be formulated by philosophers or pronounced by some body such as the United Nations.


Most legal rights relating to persons involve human rights, but you only need to recall the terror regimes of Hitler in Germany to remember legal rights which were devoid of any humanity.


Use What You Have : 1862 American Tract Society This way and that way he went, until I

was close at his side. "Have you lost any thing, my little fellow?" I asked. I expected to have a bright young face turned up to mine as he replied; but when the child raised his head, I was inclined to move away in disgust…


There was a silly, helpless look about the poor creature, that told at once why he was wandering hither and thither without any object. He had no mind to direct his steps. He was an idiot. His body was well; he could eat and sleep and enjoy himself like a mere animal, but he had no mind to make bright his eye, and give to his face a pleasing expression.


“We Kept Our Retarded Child at Home.”


MR 67: A First Report To The President On The Nation's Progress And Remaining Great Needs In The Campaign To Combat Mental Retardation

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Instruction of Students with Intellectual Disabilities