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Until recent years, far more special teachers have served under this plan than under any other. The majority of them have been special class teachers of pupils who have been labeled Educable Mentally Retarded. Under this plan usually pupils with only one type of exceptionality label are enrolled in one special class. Since these special classes traditionally have operated on a self-contained basis. The system has often been described as being separated for academic instruction from the so called normal children.
Under the special class plan, pupils receive their academic instruction in the rest of the school such out of- classroom activities as assembly, sports clubs and dinning. They may also take industrial arts, home economics and physical education from the teachers who specialize in these fields at the school.
In some communities, especially in more rural areas, one special class may have enrolled in it children with a number of disability labels while these classes may be better than no special education at all, it is difficult to see how one teacher could have all the competencies needed to work for example with crippled hearing and vision-impaired and retarded children.
In general, the self-contained special class plan has been most severely criticized when used with slow learners. Too often the plan has been used to put out of sight pupils, the regular teachers do not want. It is to be hoped, however that this practice will not diagnose the appropriateness of the plan especially for children with severe learning disabilities and for younger children. Certain of these children may need on intensive, specialized curriculum to learn specific skills, so as to take a greater part in the regular school program later in their school careers, perhaps the language. This plan is justified only where children need a special curriculum and as yet essentially none has been devised for children with mild learning behavioral and intellectual disabilities.
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