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`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, California In his book, In Search of Better Angels: Stories of Disability in the Human Family, author J David Smith appeals to the “better angels” of our character in a unique style of writing uncommon in literature for educational practitioners. The book seeks understanding for children with disabilities and the creation of a society that celebrates human diversity through a collection of stories. In Search of Better Angels discusses the challenges and possibilities for an inclusive educational system that accepts and welcomes students with disabilities. The stories presented throughout the book journey through the historical and scientific theories that shaped society’s perception of people with disabilities. They include narratives of personal change and realizations, evaluations of trends in teaching and education for students with disabilities, and lessons we can learn as a society from people with disabilities and the qualities they possess 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. 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
