Disabled+Students

=Disabled Students=

The first school for disabled students was built in 1817 for students who were deaf and mute. The name of it was the Connecticut Asylum at Hartford for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb Persons. In 1829, the first school for the blind was built. Although these schools were for disabled students, they were only for students who were blind and/or deaf. A school for the mentally disabled students was first established in 1848 by Hervey Wilbur. This school was called the Massachusetts School for the Feebleminded and Idiotic Youth. In 1963, the term "learning disability" was first used by Samuel A. Kirk during a Chicago conference about students with perceptual disorders. In 1964 the Association for Children with Learning Disablities (now the Learning Disabilities Association of America) was formed. In 1971, a court case known as [|Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children vs. Pennsylvania] made it so that students with mental retardation have the right to a free public education. In 1972, a court case known as [|Mills vs. the Board of Education in Washington, DC] extended the PARC vs. Pennsylvania ruling to include other students with disabilities and required the provision of adequate educational services to fit the child's needs. The Rehabilitation Act was passed in 1973 and stated that schools must be non-discriminatory on the basis of physical and mental handicaps in programs that are recieving or benefitting from federal financial aid. In 1975, the [|Education of all Handicapped Children Act] was passed. In April of 2003, Congress approved a legislation to strengthen special education and improve the results of children with disabilities. Today, more than one half of all American students are diagnosed with learning disabilities.

What did we believe before the shift?
Before the shift, we as society believed that people and students with any type of disability were retards and idiotic. This was because people without disabilities did not understand people who did have them, and therefore, were clueless about how to help them.

What do we believe after the shift?
After the shift, we believe that students with disabilities simply need more help and support in education. Through special education courses and extra help in the classroom, disabled students are now able to work up to their true potential and be on the same level as their classmates who are not in the special education courses.

How do we still act that we believe the old belief?
We still act as though we believe the old belief by using slang. This usually occurs when a person does something unusual, and others usually comment that the person is "retarded" or an idiot. Though people who actually have disabilites are no longer called these terms (though sometimes medical professions still use the terms), it is the people who have no disabilites or no apparent disabilities that are called retarded and idiots.

Resources:
American Education History Timeline- http://www.cloudnet.com/%7Eedrbsass/educationhistorytimeline.html 108th Congress Special Education- http://edworkforce.house.gov/issues/108th/recess/edaccomplishments.htm Cooperative Education and Students with Disabilities- http://staff.washington.edu/sherylb/jstc.95.html