Report...Town Officers of the Town of Mendon
Historical excerpts always put today in perspective. The way language changes and the different way words are used or the forum in which they are expressed identify periods where social considerations were less.........well they were just less. Or were they? Did we just feel guilty of our own word associations and decide to change the label? Was it better when we just called a spade a spade? Thoughts?
In case the pictures of the 1879 Town of Mendon Report are not legible the excerpts mention The school for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Youth and in the report for school number one (of 5) the North End school starts with...."This school, one of the largest in town., has been taught throughout the year by Miss Flora Freeman. The scholars here are backward,and ,at the commencement of the year, seemed listless,unaccustomed to study or order.
posted by Gary Smith @ 12:18 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Actually, in the 19th century, the terms "idiot" and "feeble-minded" were scientific classifications. Although 1879 pre-dates the development of the standardized IQ test (1905), once their use was widely adopted, someone with an IQ of 20 or less was classified as an idiot.
Obviously, the use of these words as psychiatric labels fell out of favor with the slow decline of the eugenics movement.
Keep posting, I'm down in WV, and the only way I can really keep up on Mendon events is from my family mailing me the Town Crier, and reading mendon commentary or other mendon blogs (most are a bit negative, so its nice to have a positive one in here). Anyways keep posting. I'd like to know whats going on even with what roads are being paved, what construction's goin on, new developments and new town officials.
Dan
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