The History of Special Education in the Twentith Century...

The History of Special Education in the Twentith Century During the twentieth century, drastic changes were made to vastly improve the special education system to ensure that all students, regardless of their ability, were given equal rights according to the Constitution of the United States. During early colonial America, schooling was not mandatory and it was primarily given to the wealthy Anglo-Saxon children (Carlson, p230). Children were mainly taught in the home or in a single room schoolhouse. Therefore, children of limited mental capability were not likely to be schooled. Also, in a non-graded schoolhouse, children of differing abilities did not pose problems. With the beginning of mandatory education in 1852†¦show more content†¦In these special classrooms, a specially trained teacher would provide the instruction. As ideal as this might sound, it is hardly what did occur. The optimism of the educators to successfully teach the disabled students faded during the 1930s and the 1940s. Special education classes were hel d under horrible conditions. The rooms were insufficient, with limited resources, the teachers were poorly trained and the curriculum was inadequate. Schools also often classified students as having disabilities when they did not. Additionally, students were often labeled with one type disability when they had another. This practice (misclassification) (Turnbull et al p16) was a common discrimination in American schools. One might wonder why the conditions were so deplorable. Why were the teachers so terribly unqualified? It appears that the common perception of the disabled students was like that of Quasimodo, in Victor Hugos The Hunchback of Notre Dame. They were misunderstood, and considered to be monstrous--something to be hidden away, shunned and rejected by normal people. The publics attitude with disabled children was one of fear, as if the disability was somehow contagious. They were looked upon as crazy people. This general outlook set the standard for educating s tudents with special needs. They were classified as inferior, so why should the school system bother to work with the retards? The mind-set was that these students