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- Dr. James Barnard
College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
Dr. James Barnard
JB: Yes, well you know the person that comes to my mind above all is Carolyn Lavely. She is still working. It seemed that she would just have to let somebody know what she wanted to do and it was funded. She was involved in several substantial programs with specific learning disabilities and she really did some ice breaking kinds of things in that field. She was able to take the curriculum that she gathered from throughout the country and put it in a package and brought it into the public schools rather than keep it here on campus. We also had a funded training program in mental retardation. It’s interesting I have always been very concerned with folks that somehow get labeled mentally disabled and for a while I was very active in the local AAMR group. That was a lot of fun to do. I remember we made over forty field trips with our students to various institutions for the mentally disabled. Some of the other Institute III people who had been asked to pick a place had come with me to the Department of Special Education. Basil Garr was one who came and we did some work together on various projects.
LB: Did you cross path with Len Luccito here or in Washington?
JB: We just missed each other at USF, though our paths crossed on the national scene a few times. Of course, I remember all the people over the years that have come and gone, but Special Education was very special for me. It was a place I always felt where the work you did had a very discernible impact on some very needy people. I must admit that as my career has progressed I have become interested in the helping part and less interested in the research part, that’s just the way it worked out. Currently, I have a renewed interest in creating my own research agenda.
LB: I’m sure there were challenges along the way. Are there any that stand out?
JB: Well, first of all I would have to say honestly, I thought USF was a wonderful, relatively low stress place to live and work. Yes, there were problems. But, I never lost that feeling that I could do what I wanted to do. I don’t care who the president was or the dean; in every case I felt they were extremely facilitative. So you always felt if you had problems they weren’t really insurmountable.
One problem that appeared, at superficially, was collaboration across departments. It was a problem then and perhaps still is today. I know the Psychology Department (College of Arts and Sciences) for instance was difficult to work with and I’m sure they felt the same way about us in Special Education. We were psychologists in Special Education we weren’t in a psychological department per se. So I would say that was something of a problem, but for me the relational thing you develop with others totally supersedes most everything else.
Problems with the funding of projects were not large in those days. For a while in the ‘60s and ‘70s, the federal funding was plentiful, especially with people like Carolyn Lavely around. Carolyn had contacts with people from local educators to state representatives to national figures. I believe she worked with three speakers of the House of Representatives during the time she was in Tallahassee. And of course, we had our students. I can’t say I ever could distinguish between students in special education and students in school psychology. There were all young people with so much ahead of them and the energy to make things better. To this day, my most treasured times has been and is with young people with a mission.