The year was 1909. The United States was in the throes of tremendous social and institutional changes: a rapidly diversifying population, dramatic shifts in political and economic structures, the rise of Progressivism as a paradigm for social reform and social control, and the intense and often grating sounds of a public education system really…

In "Laggards, Morons, Human Clinkers, and Other Peculiar Kids," Robert Osgood takes the readers back to a pivotal moment in the development of American public schools, a time when schools were just starting to be held accountable for seeing to it that children progressed through the system efficiently. As a result of Ayres study, which was…

John Dewey defines democracy as a form of associated living "in which the interests of a group are shared by all its members, and the fullness and freedom with which it interacts with other groups." Few would argue that people with disabilities have been among the most excluded, the least able to share in the fullness and freedom of "associated…

The contradiction between the concept of equality found in the Declaration of Independence and that found in U.S. Constitution led the author to question what the Constitution had to say about education. After all, Montesquieu (1689-1755), a French "philosophe" whose work heavily influenced Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and the U.S.…

Disability and dependence are integral to the human experience and yet have been largely marginalized or denigrated within Western philosophy. Joining a growing counter narrative from the disability studies movement, several mainstream moral philosophers are helping to redress this error. In this essay, the author discusses ideas from four such…