PROBLEMS OF MENТАL RETARDATION

There is real cause for concern about the possibility that the mentally retarded may become a forgotten group... For the mentally retarded are a group whose disability may never lift a single one of their number from the shadows of obscurity. Intelligence, a necessary, if not exclusive ingre­dient of fame is denied to them either at birth or early in life. No prominent figure stands among them to dramatize their cause before the world. The blind can point to a Helen Keller, distinguished writer; the deaf to a Beethoven, a com­poser - genius; the epileptic to a Julius Caesar, soldier and statesman; the poliomyelitic to a Franklin D. Roosevelt, a nation's president and wartime leader. But these individu­als had the gift of great intelligence which reduced their physical or emotional disability to the status of an incidental factor of their lives. The mentally retarded have no such source of inspiration and challenge. They cannot point to one of their number and say, "See, what extraordinary good he has done for humanity!" It would seem to be their inescap­able fate to be obscure.

"The blind, the deaf, the epileptic, the polios - these can furnish from their own groups the leadership to demand of society recognition and a fair chance. But the cause of the intellectually subnormal must be championed by individuals not of their group; else they will be forgotten in the fight for economic survival, for a chance at liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Changing Concepts in Mental Retardation, p. 14.

Dixon, Illinois 1967-68.

T E R M S

obscurity мрак, неясность, безвестность

exclusive исключительный

ingredient of fame составная часть славы, известности

challenge вызов

inspiration вдохновение

to furnish представлять, выделять

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