Special education: Implementation of new rules

Abstract

Nancy K. Klein Department of Specialized Instructional Programs Cleveland State University Cleveland, Ohio A great journalist, Henry L. Mencken, once remarked that for every complex problem there was a simple solution. And that solution was probably wrong. Perhaps no where is this more true than in the field of special education, a technique developed to deal with those children euphemistically called exceptional. While a few of these children vary from the norm by being of superior intellect, most suffer from limitations of learning ability or have sensory, physical and /or emotional problems. For a great many years our society chose to avert its attention from backward children, to shut them up in back rooms or even to pretend they did not exist. It is only quite recently that a growing awareness of this segment of our population has come to national attention. It has slowly sunk into our collective minds that such babies arrive at the homes of the well-born as well as in the slums, and that they, too, are citizens.