The school if I remember it's history right was founded first as a private school during the Polio Epidemic of the 1950's. 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. The later to come Forced Mainstreaming of kids with disabilities into schools is why many saw a sudden so called epidemic.
Personally in general I'm not for Mainstrtreaming. I think the gets would get maximum needed help in a Special Education School where they could recieve all levels of help. The help I got in just two years was enough that in 1976 I passed my Military entrance physical and again in 1984.
I attended it in 1970-71 for some Eye and muscle coordination issues which also made studying difficult. As an adult after doing research when it hit disability level I now know that I have had life long Sensory Processing Disorders that worsened over time. More than one likely several together. Look up Central Auditory Processing Disorders. I think that is often misdiagnosed as being ADD ADHD. The symptoms are close by treatment and triggering events vastly different. That was believed at the time to be ADD ADHD in my case but wasn't. I didn't need Ritalin I needed Valium or simluar.
The Polio epidemic began a slow change in how society saw persons with disabilities. Rather than the disabled being left at home with no help many were helped and many as well achieved significant levels of independence. Thankfully medical science is helping to cut down on such disorders as CP by taking doing C-Sections.
We have also seen a rise in children born with birth defects but I'd say again medical science advances has allowed for many children to survive that even a couple decades ago would not have made it to term.
Some mention Dementia. My sister is 5 years older than me and is almost 61. She was diagnosed with it over two years ago and has likely had it a couple years before that. The Strokes and Smokes took their toll. She's in a Memory Care Unit for her own safety. She can't walk off or hurt herself or others there.
I used to work in nursing homes about 20 years ago and we had patients in their early 50's with it. Truth is Alzheimer's/Dementia has always been there but folk just didn't usually live long enough for it to be seen as much as it is today.
LOL Man Oh Man look at my wording in my previous post. I can not correct my mistakes even when I find them LOL. Spell Check only does so much. LOL
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.