![]() His schools were seen in many cities all over the United States, but his first school was founded in 1840 in Paris. Seguin was a 19th-century French-born American neurologist, and the first who founded a school for “idiots” called Seguin Physiological School. Some diseases could also change the size of a person’s head, such as Microcephalus, which causes shrinkage of the head, and Hydrocephalus, which causes the enlargement of the head.Įdouard Seguin was a doctor who stepped out of the box and did something others thought was hopeless: educating the intellectually disabled. Many people classified as “idiots” lacked certain brain functions, which could cause loss of hearing, smell, taste, sight, perception, and imitation. The different types of idiocies included Genetous idiocy, Microcephalic idiocy, Eclampsic idiocy, and more. How was idiocy classified? Idiocy was classified in many different ways, and there were different types of idiocy. Other words that were used to describe people with intellectual disabilities were “imbecile” and “moron.” Doctors used these terms to describe the degrees of idiocy with “idiot” as the most disabled, followed by imbecile, and then moron as least disabled. What is feeble-minded and what or who classifies an “idiot”? The word “idiot” was originally used as a medical term to describe people with intellectual disabilities, although it is used differently today. From Records of the Elm Hill Private School and Home for the Education of Feeble-Minded Youth (MSS 6/013-01), Series 8.6, number 22 (box 61). Students at the Elm Hill Private School and Home for the Education of Feeble-Minded Youth, circa 1893. As historians, it is up to us to observe, not to judge. Like any field of history, it is important to keep in mind the time period in which the texts were written and to not pin our 21st-century beliefs on those of the past. ![]() ![]() Note: Many medical terms used in the past – even through the first half of the 20th century – are words that we find insensitive or cruel today. Edouard Seguin and educating the “feeble-minded” in the 19th century ![]()
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