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Let me give a very specific and, it so happens, most up-to-date example: Dr. Samuel Kirk, the distinguished educator, was quoted in a meeting here as having recommended that classes for the trainable should be removed from the jurisdiction of the public schools and placed in the department of mental hygiene or department of welfare. Such a step would, of course, create a major administrative upheaval in many places and so I took the opportunity of discussing this with Dr. Kirk. What I found is not surprising. Dr. Kirk does indeed feel that in the lower echelons of the trainable group there are individuals who are unsuited for school programs and should be in day-care programs under child welfare auspices. But by no means does he feel that ongoing classes now in the public schools should be transferred to another department not under educational auspices. This is a good example of the problems and confusion which arise from what has become a too limiting terminology, a terminology which no longer adequately serves the need of the retarded.

Another instance is the increasing use of the terms "educable" and "trainable" in the sheltered workshop realm, where this school terminology is inappropriate and prejudicial to the interests of the more severely retarded.

Let me cite a few other examples where we are retarding the progress of the retarded in the field of sheltered workshops and rehabilitation. It so happens that yesterday I received from Mr. Samuel A. Brown of Arlington, Virginia, one of the many volunteers who assist our International Relations Committee, the translation of an article from the August, 1960, journal of our Danish sister-organization. The article deals with the development of workshops for the retarded in Holland and brought back to me vivid memories of my own visit there. There is no question but that the Dutch have the most progressive workshops for the retarded anywhere in the world. Considering that Holland is a small country, devastated during the last world war and shortly thereafter literally ripped apart by the worst flood on record, we might well ask ourselves why we as a wealthy nation are lagging so far behind. The article perhaps provides an answer in its very first sentence: "A realistic adaptation of the mentally retarded to society can be achieved by not underestimating and by not overprotecting them. By giving them a real chance many can hold their own -- even including the imbeciles -i.e., the more severely retarded-."

I hope many of you who had the opportunity of hearing Dr. Rick Heber last night are reminded of the very significant finding he reported to us -- that a too gentle, too permissive, too nondemanding regime for the retarded, one which protects him from failure, works very much to his detriment and seriously interferes with future training.

This insight is reflected in the program of these Dutch workshops. As I travel about this country, I am at times amused but also chagrined at the many explanations I get as to why our workshops often do not even come up to what used to be known as "banker's hours." The Dutch insist that their workshops are run for the full working day; they are not unmindful of the value of recreational and other socializing activities for the retarded, but these are arranged for during the evening hours, something we seem to consider too much of a bother. Perhaps I should quote here the statement by Dr. Speijer, a public health official who administers programs for the retarded in The Hague -- and please keep in mind that he is including the more severely retarded. "Our basic standpoint is simply that in reality there is no tremendous difference between the mentally handicapped and 'us others.' "

This attitude is reflected as much in the Dutch workshop product as in the workshop procedure. Listen to what Dr. Speijer had to say on this to his Danish audience:

A completely wrong way of going about it is to manufacture those things which are traditionally prepared by the mentally handicapped and sold at bazaars. We must get away completely from everything bearing the stamp of philanthropy, away from embroidery and brushes. The workshops must manufacture products which can be sold on the open market and stand up to competition.

One other factor which, it seems to me, is of greatest import here pertains to the approach to training. The thrifty and efficient Dutch think nothing of having the training of a mentally retarded in a workshop (we are not talking here about school) extend to four and even six years. Compare this with our own impatience, our tendency to stamp people failures after a far too short training and trial period.

We might make reference here to another instance of "retarding the retarded": I hear in my travels that our parents hesitate to send adolescent girls and young women to workshop programs for fear harm may befall them. Furthermore, those of you who have studied the splendid report by Gerhart Saenger, The Adjustment of Severely Retarded Adults in the Community, will remember that he comments upon the fact that the adjustment of the girls was far less satisfactory than that of the boys, presumably because they did not have the freedom of movement in the community which is so essential as a learning and growing experience. Yet Saenger's study also showed that the great fears of sex activity on the part of the severely mentally retarded have little basis in fact.