Twenty-Five Years After Dunn's Article

Twenty-five years after Dunn (1968) questioned the efficacy of special classes, some are questioning Special Education itself. Dunn's polemical reaction to civil rights concerns was already permeating school reform in the 1960s. His legacy was an ideological cleavage between special education and advocates for minorities. General education created segregationist tendencies for economic reasons. Hence, contemporary rhetoric about “full inclusion” may fail. Couching special education in constitutional terms resulted in gradual substitution of procedural compliance for instructional innovation. Dunn ignored the importance of school context. The present authors focus on Tolerance Theory and analysis of the effects of school environments.