The History of Special Educational Needs and Disability

The history of Special Educational Needs

The history of Special Educational Needs shows ignorance and a lack of understanding of learning difficulties. Throughout history, learning difficulties, mental health and physical disabilities have been closely linked—an overview of how society has viewed people who did not fit into society.

Mediaeval times 1050 - 1500

Disability was as widespread in medieval Britain as today, and the community cared for people with disabilities. The origins of disability were congenital disabilities, such as leprosy and years of hard physical labour. They used the words 'Leper', 'Lame', 'Blynde', 'Deaff', 'Natural Fool', and 'Lunatick'.

The community cared for the disabled children and adults within families or happily married, working in occupations they could manage. Country folk supported each other in the villages, looking out for those less fortunate and sharing the work.

The Church

The churches and religious orders cared for those who could not contribute to the workforce. It was God's work to care for the sick. Monasteries, networks of Nunneries and small hospitals cared for those ill and infirm. The Latin for Hospitals is 'Hosps', which means host and guest. Rooted in Christian writing, to care for and shelter those less fortunate. Blind Monks managed a 7th-century Monastery in Whitby. Watching over the soul was as important as caring for the body.  

Between the 11th and 14th centuries

Networks of small Hospitals specialised in specific ailments such as blindness and deafness. Physically disabled and those who had mental disabilities. They lived and worked in communities supported by religious establishments. The attitudes towards those with disabilities. Was it a punishment due to sins or the consequence of being born under the influence of Saturn in astrology? Lepers suffered purgatory, believing their sins were cleansed between Heaven and Earth rather than after death. Others saw the disabled as childlike and felt special as they were closer to God.

The time of Pilgrimages to Holy places for dispelling curses or easing ailments, as noted in Thomas Becket's Canterbury Tales. The less fortunate ended up on the streets begging with the criminals and pick-pockets of the day. 

If the wealthy wanted to feel good about themselves and pave their way to heaven, they would donate money to support Almshouses—Maison Dieu, meaning Godly house for long-term shelter for the disabled and aged infirm. It was community service for Royalty, noblemen, and wealthy merchants. The Almshouses had strict rules about lifestyle, diet, and praying for those saved from a life on the streets.

From the 13th Century

The King had rights and duties of care over the 'Natural fools and idiots,' those we know today as people with learning difficulties. He had custody of their property and assets and was responsible for looking after them. A Special Inquisition, conducted by county judges, determined a person's mental state.

A declaration made at the time of Edward I (1272–1307) defined certain feudal and political rights of the Crown, including the right to wardship of an idiot's lands to protect the idiot's heirs from disinheritance or alienation. — Also termed de praerogativa regis   (dee pree-rog- [schwa]-tI-v [schwa] ree-jis).

Starting to understand how diseases, such as leprosy, put communities outside cities. By the 14th Century, leprosy as a disease was receding, and immunity was increasing, so the houses started to admit other disabilities. 

The black death (1347-1350) created more fear about contagion and spreading disease, leading to an institutional response to disability.

Mental Institutions

The first and most infamous Mental Institution was in London - the Priory of St Mary of Bethlehem, a charitable Hospital in Bishopsgate in London, formed in 1247. Run by Monks looking after those with physical disabilities, they started to accept mentally ill patients, known as lunatics, in the 1370s. We now know people are perceived as 'idle' in institutions with learning difficulties.  St Mary of Bethlehem was later renamed Bedlam Hospital. This is where the word Bedlam comes from.

Most mentally ill people lived in village communities for the next 400 years.

People outside religious orders became involved with the care, so scandals started. The City of London took over the running of St Mary's of Bethlehem due to poor management, but the new administration resulted in charges of theft and embezzlement. Medical Doctors of varying qualifications tried different treatments and medicines. To induce a recovery or cure, they used chains, manacles, stocks and the shock of corporal punishment.

Disability in the Tutor Institutions 1485 - 1600

Those with disabilities were cared for in religious establishments called 'Spittals (hospitals) run by Monks and Nuns. While honestly, there was a growing concern about neglect, abuse and decay of the buildings. 'I hear that the masters of the hospital are so fat that the pore be kept clean and bare enough', wrote one critic.

In 1533, Henry VIII's divorce led to the split from the Catholic church. Religious buildings and churches were destroyed, and their assets were confiscated. Making many disabled, destitute and forced to live on the street. London Hospitals such as St Bartholomew's and St Giles Holborn were plundered. Bury St Edmunds lost five hospitals, and a Leper House and an Almshouse in Dover turned into an Alehouse. When the King realised the increase in people on the street, he restored the Hospitals and Almshouses. The duty of care then became a civil duty, not a religious one, so many establishments became controlled by the City's corporations, such as Mary St. Bethlehem, becoming the Royal Bethlehem Asylum.

The Poor Acts enforced vicious punishment on lazy criminals, but those born with disability, 'blind', 'lame', ' either wit' or 'member', were provided for by 'Overseers' with an allowance.

The 'Fool'

Henry VIII liked the 'natural fools' in his court to entertain him. He recognises them as part of his family, as seen in the portraits. We would know them as people with learning difficulties. They were an antidote to the betrayal and backstabbing in court life. They were not fools; they were the eyes and ears of the King. 

In 1547, the only institution left after Henry VIII for the mentally ill was Mary St. Bethlehem, now known as Bethlem Hospital. It was run by the Corporation of London by medically trained Superintendents. Mental illness needed a cure, and the treatment was a mixture of psychological, astrological, religious, and traditional medicine.

Community support

Most people with disabilities and learning difficulties still live in the community. In Norwick in 1570, a 70-year-old blind baker ran a bakery with his wife's support. Thomas Bone, a 'dumb person', married Sara in 1618, the first English wedding conducted in Sign language. In 1643, another deaf man became a hero of the war, John Dyott, nicknamed 'dumb Dyott'. From the battlements, he fired a bullet that killed the commanding officer of the parliamentary army; Lord Brooke returned home a hero.

In the Census of the poor in 1570, 1400 of the poorest people in the City were unable to work due to lameness, crooked limbs, blindness and deafness. Outside the towns, those seen as lame worked as labourers, and the women were skilled knitters and spinners. The parish paid a regular sum if the family was struggling. When Alice Stock became too lame to work, the Parish of St Botolph of Bishopsgate, London, spent her 6d a fortnight to look after her 'foolish girl' Martha.

The treatment of mental illness varies, depending on how much you can afford. There was still an element of superstition around the cause and treatment.

War

The war brought their casualties, including disabled men with horrific injuries, unable to work, and left to die in the street. During Elizabeth's reign, acts were passed to provide pensions for soldiers and sailors who had lost limbs, the first Occupational Pension Scheme. Hospitals were built to house the retired soldiers. Later, there would be the Chelsea Hospital.

The Madhouses in the 18th Century

The growing feature of this period was the 'Madhouses', which were private homes and communities where people of lower standing in the community, with dubious medical qualifications, were kept. Mental illness was believed to be a 'loss of reason' to be cured, and disability was seen as a misfortune rather than the religious idea of a divine message with childlike characteristics.   

Wealthy merchants like to provide private houses with extensive gardens and indoor games for gentlemen and ladies, charging the highest fees. People experiencing poverty were at the mercy of the parish and charity, so the standards varied, and they lived in cold and filthy conditions. The 'Gentleman's Magazine' 1763 wrote about the 'cruel acts that went on in the madhouses', 'many arbitrary and unlawful'. A House in Winchester had private patients living in a mansion, and the paupers living in the stables and outbuildings.

The Madhouse Act

The 1774 Madhouse Act ensured that every Madhouse had a license from a committee of the Royal College of Physicians and a permit that lasted one year. Each house could care for lunatics and was inspected by the college each year. Some left their spouse or relative if they got in the way or wanted to remarry. The private houses still had to make money, so the rich would pay good money for an afternoon out to observe a lunatic.   

Under the Lunacy Act of 1846 and the County Asylum Act

In the same year, a commission was formed to regulate care and put asylums under the control of the public local authorities. A resident Physician with rules and regulations was appointed, and the Home Secretary inspected each asylum. The care of mental illness and disability significantly improved.

Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, there was a sizeable rebuilding programme to show off this new City and wealth. New Hospitals appeared, and the Royal Bethlem Asylum had an update. A voluntary asylum movement grew based on the idea that a clean, gentle asylum regime would allow those with mental health issues and disabilities to flourish. Charles II wanted to copy Louis XIV's great Hotel des Invalides military Hospital in Paris, so they had the Royal Chelsea Hospital in 1682 for disabled and aged soldiers and the Royal Hospital in Greenwich for the disabled and senior navy veterans. St. Guy's Hospital in London was built 1721 for the incurably and chronically lunatic.

Schools

Children were educated in Charity Schools in the latter half of the 18th Century. The well-off had home tutoring, but people with disabilities were unlikely to receive an education. Schools for blind and deaf students appeared through individuals lucky enough to get an education. Thomas Arrowsmith (1771-c1830) was born deaf and attended a local village school. His mother had demanded a place for her son, and he did well. He was the first child to follow England's first Special school - Braidwood's Academy for the Deaf in Grove House, Hackney, London. Thomas became a well-known painter and artist, exhibiting in the Royal Academy. He set up two academies in Edinburgh and London using his form of Sign language, the Braidwoodian system. This was the forerunner of British Sign Language. 

Edward Rushton's lasting legacy was to set up the Liverpool School for the Indigent Blind. He worked on slave trading ships, caught contagious Ophthalmia, and lost sight. After arguing with his captain over the enslaved people's conditions, they charged him with mutiny. On his return, he became an anti-slave protester and built his school for blind students. It taught the children music, spinning, and skills to be independent when they left.

Most disabled adults and children live at home in their families and the parish. The unlucky ones had to live on the streets and beg - 'Billies in bowls'.

Victorian Asylums and Workhouses

The County Asylums continued with a resident physician monitored by the Royal College of Physicians, with a few hundred patients. However, this was all to change at the beginning of the 19th Century. From nine small charitable asylums in 1900, there were 120 asylums. The county pauper asylums had an average of 1,000 intakes, totalling 100,000, with a further 10,000 in workhouses. Workhouses were called a 'Public Assistance Institution' but locked away many more with mental health problems. In 1808, the County Asylum Act funded the building of County Asylums to remove the insane from the Workhouses. Many who didn't fit into society were treated like prisoners, not patients.

When we think of a workhouse, we think of Dickens and Oliver Twist and their hardships. In 1834, the 'Poor Law Amendment at workhouses changed, becoming deliberately cruel and harsh. The 'idle' who were able-bodied were lazy and needed to be punished. Many inhabitants were adults and children who we would know as having a disability or learning difficulties. Before this, the Workhouse had been a humane community that provided a haven to the disabled and destitute. They provided services for the local parish, such as a Fire Brigade, a morgue and meeting rooms. 

The Poor Law Act of 1834

Three hundred fifty workhouses were built throughout the country to punish the work-shy as the country entered the Industrial Revolution age. Some Hospitals were open, allowing the patients to work on the local farms and kitchens. Taking in work, the patients would repair shoes and clothes to earn money. Many adults and children were stuck in these institutions. Many with no mental illness may have a learning difficulty or a mother out of wedlock.

The Alienist

A new type of medical physician emerged from the Industrial times, known as the 'Alienists', whom we call Psychiatrists. They believed there was a cure for some of these mentally ill people using treatments such as Electric Shock Treatment. The progression of new medicine faded, and patients stayed locked up, the chronic and dangerous cases. 

Self-help Groups

Blind and Deaf Schools

The rise of self-help groups started for disabled people, such as the Guild of the 'Brave Poor Things'. Their coat of arms was a sword crossed with a crutch. Charitable schools educating the blind and people who are deaf or hard of hearing also cater for other disabilities. Their motto was 'Happy with their lot' and used military imagery to create positive feelings. People saw life outside as a 'battlefield' where pain is the enemy to be met. They had to overcome their daily challenges to get food and shelter.

End of the Victorian Era

By the end of the Victorian era, many charitable schools and organisations provided services for disabled people. In 1868, Dr Armitage formed the British and Foreign Blind Association. Initially, it was to promote the use of braille and would become the Royal National Institute for the Blind. Other charitable organisations offered education for the 'lunatic', 'idiots', 'deformed', and 'epileptics'. In 1899, 43 schools in London alone taught 2,000 children, reducing those destined for the Workhouse.