Reclaiming the History of Special Education for More Effective Practice

Special educators seem susceptible to the adaptation of untried and ineffective interventions. A vexing question related to the credibility of the field is why, historically, ineffective interventions persist and appear with cyclical regularity. We suggest that one way to reduce adaptation of questionable interventions is to place more emphasis in our professional culture on the history of special education, specifically the history of effective and ineffective interventions. We further suggest that educators more familiar with the history of special education's effective interventions will be better prepared to actively discriminate effective from ineffective interventions in their current work. We also offer a rationale explaining the confluence of influences to be considered in teaching the history of special education as a catalyst for more insightful and selective special education practice.