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Thanks.
yours:

The county because of the massive urgent need took over the school and it expanded to take in Deaf, Deaf mute, ADD/ADHD, Dyslexic, Legally Blind, Spinal Disorder, CP, MD, Multiple Personalities it was there.

if you add sociopaths and psychotics to your list, we’ll have a pretty accurate attendance list for the last management meeting I had to attend.

which is to say, a lot of people with various serious problems ARE out and “functioning” in our psychotic sociopathic culture today.

But then again, you are correct also in noting that the mainstreaming of everyone has caused them all to be much more visible. This indeed may explain the whole appearance of a large-scale increase in their numbers.

We also agree that “mainstreaming” is not a good approach, at least not for many of these conditions.
For some, probably yes.
But for many, it only hurts them all the more .. I think.

Another problem not mentioned is that the ‘mainstreaming” of so many people with problems....helps increase the number of “street people” in our large cities. A very unfortunate result from this “mainstreaming” Politically-Correctedness of a policy. Crummy for society...and even worse for these unfortunate people themselves.

The school I went to had it's own Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy Departments, plus LCSW's to help the kids cope. The teachers? They were saints. They were true Special Education Teachers with the actual gift to be such. Some were likely there when it opened and they had a special talent in being able to reach many kids on different levels. They could take a kid in a Manic Rage and in minutes have them calm. I know one kid it was an everyday thing with him in that respect.

Believe it or not the school in size was about the size of a typical elementary school. The building is still there but it's a Senior Citizens Center now and county offices.

The kids with disabilities in today mainstreamed schools are not getting the help they will need to succeed later to the best of their abilities. It can mean the difference between independence or institution for some. In short Mainstreaming some kids who otherwise could have been helped in Special Education schools set up for such is simply a daycare program. It does the child, the classmates, the taxpayers, and teachers, a disservice.

The help I got allowed for me to work until age 37 as well as do four years active duty and a national guard enlistment after that. Education wise I'm a high school grad with two Voc/Tech courses afterward. I specialized in HVAC and Commercial wiring. I worked in health care facilities in maintenance and boiler operations. Without it? I may not have made it out of high school.

My time in the school also gave me a very different outlook on persons with disabilities. Kids confined to wheelchairs became my friends along with kids with many other issues. You learn that there is a person there.

Most important was it readied me for events that I would face when I was 27 and my girl friend at the time became a quadriplegic one afternoon when we were on a date. We're now about three months shy of our 28th wedding anniversary LOL.

Looking back I think I got a good well rounded education. I may no longer be able to hold a paying job but I still pull my weight. I'm a skilled caregiver to my wife and soon likely my mother as well. I did my dad's Home Hospice and I am the one Memory Care calls when Sis falls etc and they need family there. I check in on her at least twice a week.