Early Educational Exclusion: ‘‘Idiotic’’ and ‘‘Imbecilic’’ Children, Their Families, and the Toronto Public School System, 1914–50.
This article uses pupil records and patient files from Toronto, along with other sources, to examine the interconnected rise of special education classes and the complete exclusion from public schools of children labelled with a form of mental deficiency referred to as ‘‘idiocy’’ or ‘‘imbecility’’ o...
| Publicado en: | Canadian Historical Review Vol. 98; no. 3; pp. 483 - 505 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of Toronto Press
Sep2017
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=124770202&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 124770202 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00083755 CHR jtl: Canadian Historical Review issn: 00083755 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Sep2017 vid: 98 iid: 3 pid: 678 pub: University of Toronto Press artinfo: ui: 124770202 10.3138/chr.4142 ppf: 483 ppct: 22 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 627KB tig: atl: Early Educational Exclusion: ‘‘Idiotic’’ and ‘‘Imbecilic’’ Children, Their Families, and the Toronto Public School System, 1914–50. aug: au: ELLIS, JASON affil: Historian of education in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia. Assistant professor in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia. su: Special education Education of children with intellectual disabilities Public schools Public education Exclusion from school History Canada sug: subj: Canada Special education Education of children with intellectual disabilities Public schools Public education Exclusion from school History keyword: children disability eugenics families mental deficiency schooling special education éducation spécialisée déficience mentale enfants eugénique familles invalidité scolarisation ab: This article uses pupil records and patient files from Toronto, along with other sources, to examine the interconnected rise of special education classes and the complete exclusion from public schools of children labelled with a form of mental deficiency referred to as ‘‘idiocy’’ or ‘‘imbecility’’ or later represented by an intelligence quotient below fifty. It was the first provincial special education laws that also enabled schools to legally exclude some children not just from the new special classes but also from public schooling altogether. Drawing on eugenics and the ideas of mental deficiency experts, school officials justified exclusion by claiming that some types of disabled children were ‘‘ineducable’’ – they could not learn or their presence in schools would harm others’ learning. The article looks at student experiences to show how exclusion curtailed their schooling. It also examines how families responded to the exclusion. Families were historical actors, despite the limitations imposed on them by their circumstances, by the policies and prevailing attitudes about class, gender, and single mothers, and by the nature of their family member’s disability. The article contributes to ‘‘the new disability history,’’ a growing subfield. À partir de dossiers d’élèves et de patients de Toronto et d’autres sources, l’auteur fait le lien entre la hausse du nombre de classes d’enseignement spécialisé et l’exclusion complète de l’école publique des enfants dits atteints d’une forme de déficience mentale que l’on appelait « idiotie » ou « imbécillité », définie plus tard par un quotient intellectuel inférieur à 50. Ce sont les premières lois provinciales sur l’enseignement spécialisé qui ont permis aux écoles d’exclure légalement et complètement certains enfants non seulement des nouvelles classes spéciales, mais aussi de l’école publique en entier. S’appuyant sur l’eugénique et les idées des spécialistes en déficience mentale, les autorités scolaires justifiaient l’exclusion en faisant valoir que certains types d’enfants handicapés « étaient inéducables », soit qu’ils étaient incapables d’apprendre ou que leur présence en classe compromettait l’apprentissage des autres. L’auteur se penche sur l’expérience d’élèves pour montrer comment l’exclusion mettait un frein à leur scolarisation. Il étudie aussi la réaction des familles à l’exclusion. Les familles ont joué un rôle historique, malgré les limites que leur imposaient leurs conditions de vie, les politiques et les attitudes existantes à l’égard de la classe sociale, du genre ou des mères célibataires, d’une part, et la nature de la déficience de l’enfant, d’autre part. Cet article contribue à la « nouvelle histoire de la déficience », un sous-champ en expansion. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Canadian Historical Review is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Canadian Historical Review holder: University of Toronto Press dt: @attributes: year: 2017 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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