The "special" quality of special education is the body of knowledge, skills, and attitudes which are used in the education and training of exceptional school children. In practice, these children have been those who public school systems could not or would not teach. The history of education for exceptional children is a simple story of massive…

The introductory text focuses on special education in the mainstream with two major themes: (1) the central and joint responsibility of teacher, parent, and principal; and (2) the primary need to limit the occurrence and magnitude of educational problems in handicapped children. The book's approach includes emphasizing processes that blend special…

Intended for pre and inservice training of regular and special education teachers, the textbook offers a mainstream approach to educating handicapped and gifted students. The first two chapters give an historical overview of the development of special education and discuss some of the major conceptual shifts that seem to be inherent in the…