Home- College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
- Dr. Surrendra Singh
College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
Dr. Surrendra Singh
LB: And that was in the College for many years and I think those materials today are on the sixth floor of the library.
SS: Yes, they are. The Southeastern Material Center had an interesting history. It evolved outside the College as part of Institute III, which was located in an apartment building on Fletcher Avenue. Later Institute III merged with College of Education and the materials were located on the first floor of the then new College of Education Building (the building with the Kiva Room). The Southeastern Material Center brought name and fame to College of Education. The center served the southeastern states. In my role as the coordinator of material evaluation (sharing information, selecting and evaluating the relevancy of materials for teachers of exceptional children) I worked with various universities and local education agencies. It was the first major collaborative venture among various departments of special education, LEA, and the Southeastern Material Center.
LB: So there were early materials that could help teachers who didn’t have a special education background necessarily nor needed help in working with children with disabilities.
SS: That is correct.
LB: There are some other activities going, on, one with EPDA in which I can find Marv Gold, Bob Dwyer, Bob Weatherford, and you were involved. Do you remember what that stands for?
SS: Well, EPDA stands for Educational Personnel Development Act, a federal funding resource. This was before the landmark law PL 94-142. EPDA funding provided support for various programs. We were fortunate to have successfully received funding for two very significant teacher training programs known as Potentially Handicapped and Gifted. I was fortunate to have worked as co-director for both of these programs with Drs. Weatherford and Sisk. The Potentially Handicapped Program focused on training teachers to work with students with disadvantage and early deprivation experiences including migrant children.
LB: This was some of the first funding in the College, I would think.
SS: To the best my recollection, that is correct. These funding and the programs are the foundation for current special education programs in the College. Most of the programs developed in the College such as Mental Retardation, Emotional and Behavior Disorders, Gifted, Specific Learning Disabilities (undergraduate degree, master’s degree, Ed. S., and Ph.D.) have roots in these early funded programs. On a historical note, the programs for training educators to work with children with mental retardation, specific learning disabilities, emotional and behavior disorders, and gifted were put on the back burner in late ‘80s, and now slowly they are being resurrected since 2000 beginning with Gifted and Talented Program. I would hope the other program will be resurrected, and an unfortunate legacy of late ‘80s will be reversed for better. This is my personal and professional perspective.
LB: Now, you mentioned potentially handicapped. What was that aimed at? Identifying at risk, what we call at risk students now?
SS: Yes, I’m glad you mentioned that. Initially the Potentially Handicapped Program developed teacher training programs for disadvantaged students including the migrant, as I mentioned earlier, from which the at risk concept and current working with migrant program emerged.