University of Virginia Library

No Babysitting

Henry Tappen, the director of the
program, soon explained to the visiting
students from the Education School that
the purpose of the center was not to babysit.
Rather, the mentally retarded, most of whom
were not educable, were taught useful trades on
a contract basis. Pay was provided by private
companies for which the work was done and in
some cases amounted to $1.40 an hour.

That was the income that Joan was making.
Multi-handicapped with severe emotional
problems, Joan was one of the few cases in the
center that had an almost normal IQ. Classified
as dull normal, she came from a middle class
home and completed her special education in
school at 16.

Joan's basic problem was that she knew she
had emotional problems. The plan of the
center's staff was to keep her mind busy with a
machine while allowing her to accomplish
useful activities.