The Puzzle of Inclusion: A Case Study of Autistic Students in the Life of One High School by Philip M. Ferguson, is an account of four male and female autistic students at a large public high school in a city in the United States in the autumn and winter of the 1981-1982 school year. It is a chapter in Interpreting Disability: A Qualitative Reader, Philip M. Ferguson et al. (editors). (1992) New York: Teachers College Press.
At the time of the study, Lancaster High School (all names of people and places have been changed) had about 1,100 students. The six autistic students were in a self-contained class with Mel as their teacher, and John as the classroom aide. They ranged in age from 14 to 17 years old.
Mel describes his students as follows:
Quote:
It's a pretty low functioning class. I've certainly worked with kids labelled autistic who were much higher functioning. Lorna is the highest functioning student in this class. If there is such a thing as an average autistic kid, then Lorna would probably be at that level.
Lorna is a tall black girl. "Although she says very little spontaneously, she seems to understand almost everything said to her. Along with Matt, she is the most independent and observant of the students. "
Matt is almost 18 years old and the oldest student in the class. "In many ways his overt behavior is the least bizarre or noticeably different in the class. [He] is the only student who still lives in an institution." About which Mel says:
Quote:
You want to see what an institution can do to a capable person? Matt's a perfect example. He's so reluctant to do things spontaneously. He's learned not to do anything unless told. Sometimes he'll want to do something so badly, and it will be something perfectly harmless like stopping in the hall for a drink of water, but instead of just doing it he'll get agitated and look for me or John.
"Matt understands almost everything said to him. He also has some good expressive language, but speaks so softly that you can barely hear him. With his skills, ability to observe and imitate, and generally reticent behavior, Matt has been the easiest student for Mel to integrate into several typical classes."
The four other autistic students are Bob, Danielle, Fred and Josh.
"Danielle and Josh are the two lowest functioning students in the class. They are both 14".
Mel describes Danielle as she was about 7 years previously:
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When I first got her she was straight out of Troy [a large, infamous state institution for the ret*d] and it was incredible. It was literally like a wild animal in a cage. She never stood still. She was constantly running around the room, screaming, pulling huge clumps of her hair out. No communication at all, no toileting skills, no eye contact, no eating skills.
Mel and John use signs to communicate with Danielle. She uses five or six regularly and understands 15 or 20.
Four of the six students were previously at an elementary school in the same city. The self-contained class for autistic students at Lancaster started in September 1981. The school went through dramatic transformations in the 1960s and 1970s, punctuated by several economic, educational and racial incidents and crises. In the five years before the time of the study, "as the total enrollment decreased, the percentage of black students from lower-income families increased." The vice principal said:
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There is going to be a revolt of gifted and even just above average kids and their parents about the school focusing on the lower third of the school population in terms of sevices. It's already happening and it will get worse.
About 80 of Lancaster's 1,100 students were labelled as handicapped.
Most of the faculty knew nothing about autism. Also several teachers resented "having special ed students 'dumped' into their classes."
The attitude of the typical students varied: The high achievers were the most interested while the low achievers, and also the black students, were uninterested or had negative reactions to the autistic students.
One high achieving female student who had volunteered in the autistic students class described the general student reaction as follows:
Quote:
They just ignore the autistic kids, or maybe back off and stare. It's the ret*d kids who really get brutalized. There's one girl who is always running around crying because they tease her, and another guy whom the students lead on without him knowing they are making fun of him. It seems like the ones who are ret*d get it the worst.
The autistic students spent most of their time apart from the typical students, in a self-contained class. Only Matt and Lorna went out to other classes. However there is some degree of integration of the autistic students with the typical students in settings such as the lunchroom, the weight room, and the hallways. All the autistic students sit together at lunch, "even though someone surveying a crowded lunchroom would be hard pressed to pick out the table of autistic kids."
The school "seemed at least tolerant of the autistic students", and extreme reactions towards them "seem to be the exception rather than the rule now."
This is the first account I have read of diagnosed autistic students in a mainstream school in the 1980s or earlier, and I found it really interesting. Though it is very likely that there were undiagnosed autistic students at Lancaster High in the early 1980s.
22 Jul 2008, 10:13 am
