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In Search of Better Angels

Stories of Disability in the Human Family

By: J. David Smith

Do children and adults with disabilities enrich our lives? Far more than most people imagine.

In Search of Better Angels is a testament to the value of individuals with disabilities and how they can touch us with their powerful humanizing influence. Smith asks us to summon the "better angels" of our character and affirm our commitment to an inclusive society based on equality and democracy. This book examines disability from three complementary perspectives:

Meet the children and adults with disabilities who have touched Smith's own life
Consider what science—and pseudoscience—has said about disability
View disability through the lens of history and literature

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9780761938415
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2003
Page Count: 160
Publication date: March 29, 2014

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Description

"We must first understand others before we can care about them and we must care about them before we can love them. In this book, J. David Smith takes us on a fascinating journey from understanding to caring to love."
Leonard O. Pellicer, Dean
University of La Verne, La Verne, CA

Do children and adults with disabilities enrich our lives? Far more than most people imagine.

In Search of Better Angels is a testament to the value of individuals with disabilities and the value that society could derive from being more welcoming to and inclusive of them. The reward is the powerful humanizing influence that they can have on others—even some of the most hardened people among us.

Colorful, real-life examples illustrate how a disability can be a valuable human attribute, a powerful source of compassion from which everyone can benefit.

What are the challenges that face us as we strive for a more inclusive society? What are the values that should guide us in our efforts? Smith approaches these questions by examining his own experience and other unique perspectives:

Meet the children and adults with disabilities who have touched his own life
Consider what science—and pseudoscience—has said about disability
View disability through the lens of history and literature

The result is a compelling case for understanding and celebrating human diversity. Smith asks us to summon the "better angels" of our character and affirm our commitment to a society based on equality and democracy.

Author(s)

J. David Smith

J. David Smith is Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor at the University of Virginia's College at Wise. He earned both baccalaureate and graduate degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University. He was awarded a second master's degree and his doctorate from Columbia University. His professional experience includes a work as a public school teacher and as a counselor. He and his wife, Joyce, served two years in Jamaica working as Peace Corps volunteers. Before coming to The University of Virginia's College at Wise as Provost, he served as Dean of the School of Education and Human Services at Longwood University. He also served as Chair of the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of South Carolina. He began his higher education career at Lynchburg College. Smith has made numerous invited presentations to national and international audiences and regularly contributes to the professional literature on education, human services, and public policy through journal articles. He is the author of ten books. One of the integrating themes of his research and writing has been a concern for the rights and dignity of people with disabilities. Smith has devoted much of his scholarship to the study of the history of eugenics and its impact on social and educational policy, and he has also been active in addressing contemporary problems and issues in education.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Power and Epiphany - Reflections on the Personal and Cultural Value of Disabilities

Part I: My Own Journey

1. Disability and Revelation: Lessons Learned and Flying Squirrels

2. Learning to Love, Loving to Learn: Mike and the Clown Faces

3. Inclusion, Exclusion, and Other Matters of the Heart: The Story of Nan

4. Disabling Prejudice: Aunt Celie and the Marble Cake

5. Lessons in Patois: Learning to Be a Jamaican

6. A Father's Proud Moment: The Day My Daughter Became a Gifted Samaritan

7. Recapturing the Spirit of Caring: Uncle, Brownie, and Sausage Biscuits

Part I: Questions to Ponder

Part II: Disability, Science, and Pseudoscience

8. Eugenics, Old and New: Mensa and the Human Genome Project

The Tragedy of Involuntary Sterilization Eugenics

Eugenics: A Continuing Legacy

The Human Genome Project and Mental Retardation

Mental Retardation, "Felt Necessities," and Ethics

9. Euguenics Revisited: Buck Versus Bell and The Bell Curve

10. Old Texts, Disabilities, and the Persistent Argument: For Whom the Bell Curves

11. Different Voices of Advocacy: Helen Keller and Burton Blatt

Helen Keller: A Magnificent Exception

Helen Keller and the Parameters of Advocacy

Burton Blatt's Advocacy: The Golden Rule and Beyond

Legacies and Challenges

12. A Place or No Place for Disabilities: Disney's Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs' Eugenics, and Visions of Utopian Perfection

Tarzan and the Triumph of Heredity

Burroughs on Genetic Predetermination

Burroughs on Breeding for Utopia

Utopia and Disabilities

13. The Polio Vaccine Research and Children With Disabilities: Sacrifices for the Miracle

Personal Reflections on Polio

The Salk Vaccine and "Institutionalized" Research

Feeding Live Polio Virus to Children With Disabilites

Research and Disabilities: Other Cases

Claiming a Place of Value for People With Disabilities: The Continuing Struggle

Part II: Questions to Ponder

Part III: Disability in Historical and Literary Perspectives

14. Disability and the Need for Romantic Science: Darwin's Last Child

15. Words of Understanding, Concepts of Inclusiveness: The Wisdom of Margaret Mead

16. The Question of Differential Advocacy: Laura Bridgman

Constructing the Disability of Mental Retardation

Disability and Invisibility

Laura Bridgman: The First Miracle

17. Disabilities and the Challenges of Equality: Looking Backward, Looking Forward

Looking Backward

Looking Forward

18. Diversity and Disability: Individuality and Mental Retardation

A Memory From Ignacy Goldberg

Jack London's "Told in the Drooling Ward"

The Typology of Mental Retardation

Mental Retardation: Redefining or Disaggregating?

Part III: Questions to Ponder

Epilogue: Finding a Voice - The Story of Bill

Index

Reviews

"We must first understand others before we can care about them and we must care about them before we can love them. In this book, J. David Smith takes us on a fascinating journey from understanding to caring to love."

Long version:
"This is not just a book about special education or people with disabilities, this is a book about humanity and what it means to be human!

J. David Smith carries on in the best tradition of the great Southern storytellers. He will make you laugh, he will make you cry, but most importantly, he will make you think!

There are insights in this wonderful book that, if taken to heart, can make us all "better angels!"

We must first understand others before we can care about them and we must care about them before we can love them. In this book, J. David Smith takes us on a fascinating journey from understanding to caring to love."

Leonard O. Pellicer, Dean
University of La Verne

Other Titles in: Special Education | Teaching Methods & Learning Styles

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Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.