The Guild for Exceptional Children is a nonprofit organization in Brooklyn which offers schooling and other services for children and adults with a disability. It identifies itself as a "provider of direct and indirect services for developmentally delayed or disabled persons, from infancy through old age, and their families."
The title of the agency is somewhat misleading – though it was originally founded by families that needed extra support for their special needs children, it now provides services for all ages, including a growing number of senior citizens who have been receiving services from the agency for decades. Some of the developmentally disabled adults have even advocated for an agency name change to better reflect who they are and create more distance from the idea that they are "child-like". People attending Guild programs may become members of a "self-advocacy" group where they discuss their rights and recommend changes within the agency.
Read more about Guild For Exceptional Children: History
Famous quotes containing the words exceptional and/or children:
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“Infants and young children are not just sitting twiddling their thumbs, waiting for their parents to teach them to read and do math. They are expending a vast amount of time and effort in exploring and understanding their immediate world. Healthy education supports and encourages this spontaneous learning.”
—David Elkind (20th century)