Education

Mentally handicapped children used to go to schools with special education. A few went to ordinary schools. This is different nowadays; it becomes more and more common for mentally handicapped children to go to ordinary schools, just with personal accompaniment.

Lots of young mentally handicapped children go to an ordinary playgroup and luckily, it is also possible for them to go to ordinary primary schools. On the site: www.humanphoto.nl/downpower you are able to read some personal stories in Dutch. There, you have to click on one of the participators and look under the letter i. Here you can read the stories of Alex and Sjoerd for example.
In former times, mentally handicapped kids did not go to school at all. Parents demonstrated to bring about a change in this. But a lot of families still have their doubts about special education, because their kids will not be able to have the opportunity to play and learn with kids who are not mentally handicapped. They do not like the idea of their kids not having that special experience.