"The Furrtails, as part of her aim to integrate mentally retarded children into regular classrooms."
It doesn't work and smacks of utopia.
I don't know about that. When I was in school (1-12), we had all kinds of kids. Disabled kids, slightly retarded kids, kids with leg braces, kids with limps, whatever. They WERE NOT segregated, as you're implying they should be. They were just our friends.
Why do YOU want to isolate them? Can't stand looking at them?
That aside, the LAST place I would choose to place my kids....especially ones with special needs....is in the regular public schools. For example, my wife was once an ASL interpreter, within several districts, for mainstreamed deaf kids. One promising young man whom she was assisting was failing miserably, and very unhappy: he was contemplating dropping out and going to work at a crappy job. Wife talked to Kid's mom and encouraged her to enroll him in a school for deaf...much to the chagrin of the administration: they lost a lot of dough on the transfer...where he would be facilitated by instructors who overcame the same obstacles (roll models), and fellows who could communicate with him on his level. (a lot of inclusion stuff is, ostensibly, for the benefit of the non-disabled students....develop "sensitivity" and such...and not necessarily in the best interest of the disabled child)
Anyway, that almost dropout , last we heard, was matriculating through Rochester Technical Institute or some such....engineer, wife thinks.
Just thought I'd mention it.