The Girls and Boys of Belchertown

The Girls and Boys of Belchertown PDF Author: Robert N. Hornick
Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Press
ISBN: 155849944X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book Here

Book Description
During much of the twentieth century, people labeled "feeble-minded," "mentally deficient," and "mentally retarded" were often confined in large, publicly funded, residential institutions located on the edges of small towns and villages some distance from major population centers. At the peak of their development in the late 1960s, these institutions--frequently called "schools" or "homes" --housed 190,000 men, women, and children in the United States. The Girls and Boys of Belchertown offers the first detailed history of an American public institution for intellectually disabled persons. Robert Hornick recounts the story of the Belchertown State School in Belchertown, Massachusetts, from its beginnings in the 1920s to its closure in the 1990s following a scandalous exposé and unprecedented court case that put the institution under direct supervision of a federal judge. He draws on personal interviews, private letters, and other unpublished sources as well as local newspapers, long out-of-print materials, and government reports to re-create what it was like to live and work at the school. More broadly, he gauges the impact of changing social attitudes toward intellectual disability and examines the relationship that developed over time between the school and the town where it was located. What emerges is a candid and complex portrait of the Belchertown State School that neither vilifies those in charge nor excuses the injustices perpetrated on its residents, but makes clear that despite the court-ordered reforms of its final decades, the institution needed to be closed.

The Girls and Boys of Belchertown

The Girls and Boys of Belchertown PDF Author: Robert N. Hornick
Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Press
ISBN: 155849944X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book Here

Book Description
During much of the twentieth century, people labeled "feeble-minded," "mentally deficient," and "mentally retarded" were often confined in large, publicly funded, residential institutions located on the edges of small towns and villages some distance from major population centers. At the peak of their development in the late 1960s, these institutions--frequently called "schools" or "homes" --housed 190,000 men, women, and children in the United States. The Girls and Boys of Belchertown offers the first detailed history of an American public institution for intellectually disabled persons. Robert Hornick recounts the story of the Belchertown State School in Belchertown, Massachusetts, from its beginnings in the 1920s to its closure in the 1990s following a scandalous exposé and unprecedented court case that put the institution under direct supervision of a federal judge. He draws on personal interviews, private letters, and other unpublished sources as well as local newspapers, long out-of-print materials, and government reports to re-create what it was like to live and work at the school. More broadly, he gauges the impact of changing social attitudes toward intellectual disability and examines the relationship that developed over time between the school and the town where it was located. What emerges is a candid and complex portrait of the Belchertown State School that neither vilifies those in charge nor excuses the injustices perpetrated on its residents, but makes clear that despite the court-ordered reforms of its final decades, the institution needed to be closed.

Belchertown State School

Belchertown State School PDF Author: Katherine Anderson
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467105015
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the first decade of the 20th century, the state of Massachusetts established itself as a leader in the education of individuals with disabilities. The third state school for the feebleminded was built in rural Belchertown, in the western part of the state. Opened in 1915, Belchertown State School would eventually encompass almost 900 acres of land and would become the largest employer in town. For nearly 60 years, the state school educated individuals with disabilities who were otherwise excluded from public education, training the "residents" to become independent members of their families and of society. The model was a success until reports of abuse and neglect began to surface, culminating in the landmark 1972 Ricci v. Greenblatt case, which ultimately led to the state school's closure in 1992. The state school's rich history, maintained and curated by the late Donald LaBrecque, chronicles the rise of special education and developmental services and the ultimate collapse of the state school system.

You'll Like it Here

You'll Like it Here PDF Author: Ed Orzechowski
Publisher: Levellers Press
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book Here

Book Description


Crimes Against Humanity

Crimes Against Humanity PDF Author: Benjamin Ricci
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780595661633
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 456

Get Book Here

Book Description
An accounting of the celebrated, historically significant and precedent-setting class action suit, Robert Simpson Ricci et. al., plaintiffs v. Milton Greenblatt, M.D. et. al., defendants was authored by Benjamin Ricci, retired professor emeritus, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, father and next friend of Robert Simpson Ricci principal plaintiff.

Forget They Were Ever Born

Forget They Were Ever Born PDF Author: Sharon Flanagan-Hyde
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781733476003
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 204

Get Book Here

Book Description
This deeply troubling yet inspiring memoir recounts the appalling abuse of people with intellectual disabilities and the anguish of their families. When Sharon Flanagan-Hyde's sister, Mary Jean, was diagnosed with severe mental retardation in 1962, doctors said to put defective children in an institution and forget they were ever born. Mary Jean was sent away as a toddler, but she was not forgotten. Decades of witnessing maltreatment and horrific conditions at Belchertown State School devastated the entire family. Mary Jean finally found a safe home, but shocking neglect and abuse continue throughout the United States. This book calls for public policy changes to ensure compassionate care for all vulnerable people.

The Girl Who Saved Yesterday

The Girl Who Saved Yesterday PDF Author: Julius Lester
Publisher:
ISBN: 1939547245
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 19

Get Book Here

Book Description
Silence, sent on a mysterious mission by the ancient trees that raised her after she was sent away from her village, reconnects the villagers with their forgotten ancestors.

Unsilenced: A Teacher's Year of Battles, Breakthroughs, and Life-Changing Lessons at Belchertown State School

Unsilenced: A Teacher's Year of Battles, Breakthroughs, and Life-Changing Lessons at Belchertown State School PDF Author: Howard C. Shane
Publisher: Brookes Publishing Company
ISBN: 9781681255156
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Get Book Here

Book Description
The year is 1969, and fresh-out-of-college smart-aleck Howard Shane has just landed his first teaching job--at Belchertown State School, a bleak institution where people with disabilities endure endless days of silence, tedium, and neglect. Howard is stunned by the conditions at Belchertown and the challenges of his new job, but as he gets to know his diverse, endearing, and intelligent students, he becomes consumed with a mission: to unlock their communication skills and help them reach their full potential. Pitting his youthful idealism and passion against the rigidity of a rule-bound administrator, Howard battles his way to small joys and victories with his students--and, along the way, learns just as much as he teaches. A stirring and spellbinding memoir from internationally renowned AAC expert Howard Shane (Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School), Unsilenced is a candid look at a pivotal era in disability history and a deeply personal account of how all human beings can flourish when we care for each other and fight for change. Hear an Excerpt Read by Howard Shane, Ph.D.

Home Town

Home Town PDF Author: Tracy Kidder
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0307826473
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 490

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this splendid book, one of America's masters of nonfiction takes us home--into Hometown, U.S.A., the town of Northampton, Massachusetts, and into the extraordinary, and the ordinary, lives that people live there. As Tracy Kidder reveals how, beneath its amiable surface, a small town is a place of startling complexity, he also explores what it takes to make a modern small city a success story. Weaving together compelling stories of individual lives, delving into a rich and varied past, moving among all the levels of Northampton's social hierarchy, Kidder reveals the sheer abundance of life contained within a town's narrow boundaries. Does the kind of small town that many Americans came from, and long for, still exist? Kidder says yes, although not quite in the form we may imagine. A book about civilization in microcosm, Home Town makes us marvel afresh at the wonder of individuality, creativity, and civic order--how a disparate group of individuals can find common cause and a code of values that transforms a place into a home. And this book makes you feel you live there.

In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle

In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle PDF Author: Madeleine Blais
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802193420
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Get Book Here

Book Description
“Beautifully written . . . A celebration of girls and athletics.” The national bestselling sports classic from a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist (USA Today). Expanded and updated with a new epilogue, Madeleine Blais’ book tells the story of a season in the life of the Amherst Lady Hurricanes, a girls’ high school basketball team from the Western Massachusetts college town. The Hurricanes were a talented team with a near-perfect record, but for five straight years, when it came to the crunch of the playoffs, they somehow lacked the desire to go all the way. Now, led by senior guards Jen Pariseau, a three-point specialist, and Jamila Wideman, an All-American phenom, this was the year to prove themselves. It was a season to test their passion for the sport and their loyalty to each other, and a chance to discover who they really were. As an off-season of summer jobs and basketball camps turns to fall, as students arrive and the games begin, Blais charts the ups and downs of the team and paints a portrait of the wider Amherst community, which comes to revel in the athletic exploits of their girls. Finally, a women’s team was getting the attention they deserve. And the Hurricanes were richly deserving; these teenage girls are fierce and funny, smart and ambitious, and they are the heart of this gripping book. “Extraordinary.” —The Baltimore Sun “A picture of a changing period in American sports history, when a town rallied around its female athletes in a way that had previously been reserved for males.” —Publishers Weekly

A History and Sociology of the Willowbrook State School

A History and Sociology of the Willowbrook State School PDF Author: David Goode
Publisher: American Association
ISBN: 9781937604059
Category : Developmentally disabled
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description