Most of what I write, whether it’s a story, article, or book, comes from something I’ve lived through in one way or another. My recent piece about the so-called “good old days” in education, when children sat in rows, listened to their teachers, and followed the rules, comes directly from my own school memories of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
But that era so many people romanticize left out an entire group of children. Before 1975, students with physical or intellectual disabilities had no federal legal right to a public education in the United States. Yes, education has always been governed by the states, and a few had limited special programs—but most children with disabilities were simply excluded.
If a child didn’t “appear” to have an IQ of at least 70, they were often turned away at the schoolhouse door. And even for those who might have qualified, schools weren’t required to be accessible. There were no ramps, no elevators, no accessible bathrooms, no accommodations.
The rights and protections we take for granted today are only about fifty years old. And even after that, it took nearly two decades for schools to figure out what those rights really meant in practice.
So, here is how the history of special education in the US collides with my life. I was born with severe bilateral hip dysplasia (complete dislocation on one side, and neither acetabulum was formed enough to be usable.) Between ages 1 and 4 ½, I had 12 reconstructive surgeries, which also included being in multiple body casts for the better part of 3 years, and in a specialized position brace when not in a body cast, just so I’d be able to walk. These surgeries included having my pelvis broken, reshaped, and restructured multiple times, and because I had no functioning acetabulums, I had what were called “notching procedures” where they actually cut notches into my pelvis to be used to hold the femoral heads (and which, of course, wore out as I grew, and had to be redone multiple times. These also meant I had no synovial fluid on either side, so walking was incredibly painful as it was bone-on-bone from day one.) This was back in the 1960s in the US, and these surgeries were considered miraculous at the time.
I remember as a child, my parents drilled into me that I was NOT handicapped! (That’s the word they used then, not disabled.) Why did they do that? Because handicapped children in the US had no legal right to an education then! I was told if anyone asked me why I walked ‘funny’ I was to tell them that I had a problem with my leg when I was born, the doctors fixed it, but it left me a little lame. (If that wasn’t an understatement of what really happened, I have no idea what would be!)
I didn’t understand until much later why they did this. It was their way of making sure I got to go to school. There were no ‘handicapped’ students at my school (other than me) unless you counted the one little boy who had to wear an eye patch on one side because he had strabismus. Of course, that eye patch was temporary. Most disabilities aren’t. It wasn’t until 1975 that things changed in the US, and handicapped children gained the Federal right to a free, appropriate education.
Later in life, I became a teacher myself, and I’ve watched the pendulum of change in the US, from no education for children with disabilities, to education that was less than ideal (and in some cases, barbaric), to what we have today, a well-intended system that is at its breaking point.
This is the reason I wrote this article, and the reason I wanted to share it with you, my fellow people with disabilities. If you’d like to read it, here is the link. https://janmariet.com/the-good-old-days-but-for-whom/
If we forget our past, we are doomed to repeat it.
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