New Hope for the Mentally Retarded

Excerpt

Him whom she loves, her Idiot boy.

—WORDSWORTH

Nothing arouses compassion more surely than disability and suffering— physical and mental—in a human being. Especially do those unfortunate children who embark on life with defective mental powers arouse in the rest of us a sense of pity. But beyond pity, the entering wedge of compassion, society has done little for its mentally retarded members beyond placing them in custodial institutions out of harm's way. That is, until recently.

A fresh wind is blowing through the world of the mentally retarded. For the past 9 years, I have had the privilege of