Outside the Mainstream: History of Special Education - Hardcover

Hurt, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0713452919 ISBN 13: 9780713452914

Publisher: Batsford, 1988

Synopsis

Despite widespread concern about special education in recent years, there has not hitherto been any comprehensive survey of its origins. Even more than in other branches of education, however, an understanding of how it has evolved in the past is essential to any full appreciation of the social and educational issues it raises in the present. In 1791 the School of Instruction for the Indigent Blind was established in Liverpool; 1978 saw the publication of the Warnock Report, which called for a major policy initiative to bring handicapped children back into the mainstream of education. These two events provide appropriate starting and finishing points for Dr Hurt's account of the growth of educational provision for children with special needs - whether these stem from poverty, behavioural problems or mental or physical handicap. The categories of course frequently overlap, and in the early days little distinction was made between the problems of particular groups. Gradually, however, with increased medical knowledge and changing social attitudes to the disabled or delinquent, there was a growing recognition of the requirements of different forms of handicap. A major theme of the book, too, is the constantly shifting balance throughout the period between the priorities of social control, treatment and education, which materially affected the nature and funding of the various branches of special education. The book is wide-ranging in its treatment and will be of interest as much to students of social policy and welfare as to social historians and historians of education.

Edition details

• Publisher: Batsford
• Publication date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0713452919
• ISBN 13: 9780713452914
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240