Through a Glass Darkly: Reflections on Our Field and Its Future

Abstract

As my title may suggest, taking a long view of a field from the limited perspective of one's own career is fraught with peril. There are many opportunities for error, in which case I could be accused of having the wrong view, my perspectives could be poorly informed or articulated (a dim view), or I could wax on like this and end up presenting no view. It has been my good fortune, throughout my career, to stand in some high cotton. Specimens of this crop also are represented in these pages. I have endeavored to be a scholar of their work. To the extent that my scholarship has been successful, I have some inkling about the topics they will address. Being something of a deviant, I will attempt a slightly different tack.Let me start with a brief personal history. I like to tell people that I began my special education career as a consumer. That isn't quite true; I was never identified nor did I receive special education services. I was, however, adjudicated as delinquent at the age of 17. I dropped out of high school and entered the Navy, which provided me with reasonably well-structured time to mature. I exited military service with a GED and a desire to obtain a higher education degree, so I enrolled in Kansas State Teachers College (now Emporia University), majoring in English and psychology. A series of events led me to a teaching position in special education, and from there to a master's degree in school psychology and doctoral studies in special education at the University of Kansas. Jim Kauffman and I were in the same cohort of doctoral students under Richard Whelan. Dick Shores was just finishing his program there, and I took over his position as a psychologist at the Children's Rehabilitation Unit. We had a wonderful grad-uate school experience; not only did we study under some great researchers and teachers at KU (including Don Baer, Montrose Wolfe, Ogden Lindsley, Earl Butterfield, and Todd Risley), but Dick Whelan also brought a number of great special education pioneers as guest lecturers: Lloyd Dunn, William Cruickshank, Newell Kephart, and John Johnson, among others.Jim, Dick, and I graduated from KU into a job bear market: Although there were not many special education personnel preparation programs in emotional disorders (ED) at the time, neither were there many applicants. We entered the field about the same time as Hill Walker and Steve Forness. Lew Polsgrove came along a few years later (with the dubious distinction of having me as his mentor at Kentucky).I hope this discourse hasn't been a terrible bore or seemed self-serving. There are, of course, more comprehensive and scholarly histories of our field (e.g., Whelan, 1998). I offer this little summary to illustrate how intimate our field is and how compact. Jim Kauffman, Dick Shores, and I can trace our roots back to Dick Whelan's mentor, Norris Haring, and his mentor, William Cruickshank. It was Norris who, along with E. Lakin Phillips, conducted the Montgomery County Project, the first documented attempt to apply a methodology to children with ED that was based on Cruickshank's work with students with minimal brain dysfunction. Haring started the Children's Rehabilitation Unit at Kansas. Steve Forness did his doctoral work at UCLA with Frank M. Hewett, who created the engineered classroom. It has been my privilege to write, present, and enjoy the company of all these fine persons for 35 years. We should have a drink together sometime.ObservationsFrom this perspective (and remember, I'm looking through a glass darkly), let me offer several observations. The comments I began with suggest the foundations and building of our field, at least the persons who were instrumental in it. I feel lucky to have witnessed such a phenomenon, which encompasses the development of fundamental research-based methodology, including systematic screening to identify students who are at risk for externalizing and internalizing disorders (Walker & Severson, 1990, Walker, Severson, & Feil, 1995) and curriculum and strategies for educating students with emotional or behavioral disorders (E/BD; Anderson-Inman, Walker, & Purcel, 1984; Haring & Phillips, 1962; Hewett & Taylor, 1980; Wong, Kauffman, & Lloyd, 1991 ), not to mention the passage of landmark federal and state legislation protecting the educational rights of students with disabilities. …