Cotting School
2008
First Published
128
Number of Pages
Part of Series
Cotting School details the interesting history of this national leader in serving children with a broad spectrum of disabilities. In 1893, two pioneering orthopedic surgeons, Dr. Augustus Thorndike and Dr. Edward Bradford, saw the need to educate children whose physical challenges prevented them from attending school. As an experiment, they founded the Industrial School for Crippled and Deformed Children in Boston. Modeled after 19th-century European institutions, the school was America's first for children with physical disabilities. Early classes were held in a church basement where Mary Perry volunteered to teach seven students. Tuition, a hot meal, and transportation in a horse-drawn carriage were free. Thanks to the leadership of the two doctors and board chairman Francis Joy Cotting, within 10 years the school was housed in an impressive, debt-free brick building. Renamed the Cotting School, the school is now located in Lexington and serves 130 day students from 74 communities. Staffed with highly skilled special education teachers; nurses; physical, occupational, and communication therapists; and dental and vision specialists, Cotting is a national leader in serving children with a broad spectrum of learning and communication disabilities, physical challenges, and complex medical conditions.
Authors
Elizabeth Peters
Author · 47 books
Elizabeth Peters is a pen name of Barbara Mertz. She also wrote as Barbara Michaels as well as her own name. Born and brought up in Illinois, she earned her Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago. Mertz was named Grand Master at the inaugural Anthony Awards in 1986 and Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America at the Edgar Awards in 1998. She lived in a historic farmhouse in Frederick, western Maryland until her death.
