“Beginnings” – a special school “for idiots” http://museumofdisability.org/virtual-museum/education-wing/education-exhibit/
In 1848 Samuel Gridley Howe opened one of the first special schools within the United States (Beginnings 2015). The school was named “The Massachusetts School for the Feeble Minded” within the preexisting “Perkins Institute for the Blind” (Beginnings 2015). The special school was created as “an experimental school for idiots” (Beginnings 2015). All around the country, people were opening institutions that were created for people who were referred to at the time as “feebleminded” or “idiots”. As can be seen through the five name changes in the history of the “American Association for the Study of the Feeble-Minded”, words like “idiot”, “feeble-minded”, “mental retardation” are no longer popular terms in the 21st century (AAIDD 2018). Currently, this population is categorized more commonly as individuals with “intellectuals and developmental disabilities” (AAIDD 2018). The importance of the image of the special school is to recognize the historical context of disabilities in this country. The Education Exhibit on the Museum of DisABILITY site, where this image of the special school is archived, is attempting to do just that. At one point in this country’s history people with disabilities were being taken and locked away like prisoners, in prison like complexes. These individuals were being grossly maltreated for having a disability, which was and continues to be seen as a misfortune or problem in this country.