From Integration to Inclusion: A History of Special Education in the 20th Century

Appendix A / Chronology of Developments in Special Education

271 Appendix A Chronology of Developments in Special Education 1760 Charles Michel de l’Epée opens the rst permanent school for deaf students in Paris. 1784 Valentin Haüy opens a school for blind children in Paris. 1817 American Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons opens; the Legislature of Connecticut appropriates the rst funds from public money in America. 1817 Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet begins teacher training at the American Asylum. 1825 The New York House of Refuge opens. 1830 The Boston Disciplinary Day School is established. 1832 The New York Institution for the Blind is established. 1832 New England Asylum for the Blind is founded, which later becomes the Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, then the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts. 1833 The Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind is organized. 1839 The Massachusetts Normal School is established. 1844 The Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane is formed (now the American Psychiatric Association). 1845 Heinrich Hoffman describes childhood hyperactivity. 1848 An experimental school for teaching children with mental retardation is established with an appropriation of $2,500 from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; an institution for the feeble minded opens in Barre, Massachusetts. 1848 Horace Mann establishes tax-supported common schools in Massachusetts. 1850 The term feeble minded is widely adopted throughout North America. 1850 The Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf and Dumb is formed. 1852 Massachusetts passes the rst compulsory school law. 272 Appendix A 1852 The Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-Minded Children opens in Georgetown. In 1859, the school moves to Media, Pennsylvania, and gradually assumes the name of the school’s founder, physician Alfred L. Elwyn. In 1927, the name changes to The Elwyn Training School; in 1960, the Elwyn Institute. 1853 The rst formal meeting of teachers of the blind takes place. 1855 The New York Asylum for Idiots at Syracuse opens; Columbus, Ohio, opens an institution for feeble-minded people. 1857 The National Education Association (NEA) is formed. 1858 The American Printing House for the Blind is formally established after quite a time of preparation and agitation. 1859 Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of the Species. 1864 National Deaf Mute College is established to train teachers of deaf students. 1865 Francis Galton publishes Hereditary Talent and Character. 1866 Edouard Seguin publishes Idiocy and Its Treatment by the Physiological Method, which conrms a public attitude of hope and belief in the potential of people with disabilities. 1867 The Clarke Institution for Deaf-Mutes opens. 1867 A class for deaf children is started in the public school system of Boston. 1868 The Conference of Superintendents and Principals of American Schools for the Deaf and Dumb is founded at the urging of Edward Miner Gallaudet. 1869 The Horace Mann Day School for the Deaf in Boston opens. 1869 Francis Galton publishes Hereditary Genius. 1871 An ungraded class is formed in New Haven, Connecticut; Alexander Graham Bell arrives in Boston. 1871 The American Association of Instructors of the Blind is formally established. 1872 Alexander Graham Bell begins to teach Visible Speech and vocal physiology in Boston. 1874 The rst class for truant boys is formed in New York City. 1875 William Wundt begins mental testing. 1876 The rst day class for incorrigibles is founded in Cleveland. 1876 The Association of Medical Ofcers of American Institutions for Idiots and Feeble-Minded Persons is formed (which later, in 1933, becomes the American Association on Mental Deciency, then the American Association on Mental Retardation in 1987). In 2006, it becomes the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. 1877 An “asylum branch” is added at the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-Minded Children. 1878 The National Conference of Charities and Corrections is established by members of state boards of charities dedicated to scientic charity, which includes institutions for deaf, blind, and mentally retarded students. 1879 Isaac Kerlin uses the term moral imbecility. Chronology 273 1880 The Second International Congress for the Amelioration of the Condition of Deaf-Mutes takes place in Milan. 1880 The National Association for the Deaf is founded. 1883 Detroit establishes an ungraded class for unruly students. 1883 Galton coins the word eugenics. 1884 Alexander Graham Bell presents his Memoir Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race. 1884 Alexander Graham Bell coins the term special education. 1884 Formal training for teachers of the blind...