In Search of Better Angels
Purchase
Description
"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, CA
Do children and adults with disabilities enrich our lives? Far more than most people imagine.
In Search of Better Angels is a testament to the value of individuals with disabilities and the value that society could derive from being more welcoming to and inclusive of them. The reward is the powerful humanizing influence that they can have on others—even some of the most hardened people among us.
Colorful, real-life examples illustrate how a disability can be a valuable human attribute, a powerful source of compassion from which everyone can benefit.
What are the challenges that face us as we strive for a more inclusive society? What are the values that should guide us in our efforts? Smith approaches these questions by examining his own experience and other unique perspectives:
- Meet the children and adults with disabilities who have touched his own life
- Consider what science—and pseudoscience—has said about disability
- View disability through the lens of history and literature
The result is a compelling case for understanding and celebrating human diversity. Smith asks us to summon the "better angels" of our character and affirm our commitment to a society based on equality and democracy.
Contents
Preface
- Acknowledgments
Introduction: Power and Epiphany - Reflections on the Personal and Cultural Value of Disabilities
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 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 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
Additional materials
Description
"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, CA
Do children and adults with disabilities enrich our lives? Far more than most people imagine.
In Search of Better Angels is a testament to the value of individuals with disabilities and the value that society could derive from being more welcoming to and inclusive of them. The reward is the powerful humanizing influence that they can have on others—even some of the most hardened people among us.
Colorful, real-life examples illustrate how a disability can be a valuable human attribute, a powerful source of compassion from which everyone can benefit.
What are the challenges that face us as we strive for a more inclusive society? What are the values that should guide us in our efforts? Smith approaches these questions by examining his own experience and other unique perspectives:
- Meet the children and adults with disabilities who have touched his own life
- Consider what science—and pseudoscience—has said about disability
- View disability through the lens of history and literature
The result is a compelling case for understanding and celebrating human diversity. Smith asks us to summon the "better angels" of our character and affirm our commitment to a society based on equality and democracy.
Contents
Preface
- Acknowledgments
Introduction: Power and Epiphany - Reflections on the Personal and Cultural Value of Disabilities
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 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 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
Additional materials
Reviews
April 2003 | 160 pages | Corwin
| Format | Published Date | ISBN | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 27/02/2023 | 9780761938408 | $80.95 |
| Paperback | 28/04/2023 | 9780761938415 | $39.95 |
| Lifetime | 28/04/2023 | 9781483360454 | $36.00 |
"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, CA
Do children and adults with disabilities enrich our lives? Far more than most people imagine.
In Search of Better Angels is a testament to the value of individuals with disabilities and the value that society could derive from being more welcoming to and inclusive of them. The reward is the powerful humanizing influence that they can have on others—even some of the most hardened people among us.
Colorful, real-life examples illustrate how a disability can be a valuable human attribute, a powerful source of compassion from which everyone can benefit.
What are the challenges that face us as we strive for a more inclusive society? What are the values that should guide us in our efforts? Smith approaches these questions by examining his own experience and other unique perspectives:
- Meet the children and adults with disabilities who have touched his own life
- Consider what science—and pseudoscience—has said about disability
- View disability through the lens of history and literature
The result is a compelling case for understanding and celebrating human diversity. Smith asks us to summon the "better angels" of our character and affirm our commitment to a society based on equality and democracy.
Table Of Contents:
- 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