The root of word Education – “educe” – comes from Latin and means “to bring out [from within]”, essentially implying the process of exploration and discovery from within own self.  It was understood as an essential process in human development, a process that can be facilitated but is inherently internal and individual. The original meaning of this conception has been supplanted in late 18th century by the Prussian schooling system as the process of preparation of the individual to the needs of the industrial society. Thus the process of formal Education system – Schooling – [serving the needs of the industrial complex] has emerged and took root and came to dominance.

Notably the elites chose to maintain the child centered approach to Education by home-schooling and in exclusive private arrangements continued to this day, where learning is guided and facilitated by some of the best scholars and teachers of our time.

The progressive currents in modern education have long fought to promote the facilitation methodology rather than schooling in public education, and partly due to their efforts the Education in an ideal is still viewed as a process of facilitated learning [wiki]. However the past 2 decades have experienced governmental drives for standardized schooling in USA as well as many other countries.

Special Education especially, was always heavily centered around Schooling – and regrettably it augmented even further the essence of Education with the practice of intervention  – specifically the intervention by force. For children with developmental delays and/or disability, Special Education has essentially morphed into an “Institution for Intervention” not only into child’s natural learning, but also intrusively into the life of a child; Special Ed is commonly accompanied by segregation, denial of freedom, deprivation of dignity, and the behavioral methodology synonymous with ‘animal training’.

Early Intervention is a part of Special Education, which for an autistic child begins at 18 month of age. The Intensive Early Intervention combined with ABA and recommended as a 24/7 behavioral intervention has been cited as a cause of anguish and suffering for the child [by the testimony of  autistic people as well as many personnel] and arguably is the cause of a lifelong trauma and disability in later life. Intervention by force is never a solution, but we do it to autistic children. The practice of Early Intervention for autistic children in its current form by many accounts amounts to torture [UN Special Rapporteur Report, pg. 181] and will remain in History as one of the shameful chapters of our Era.

History and purpose of Early Intervention  – The pennant of ‘early intervention’ belongs to Ole Ivar Løvaas considered to be the grandfather of intensive behavior intervention for autistic children, when in 1973 [dismayed that many of his behaviorally treated subjects had reverted to their autistic ways] he proposed to begin interventions in children’s preschool years. The Special Education has already emerged as a lucrative enterprising field and the idea of early intervention fell onto a fertile soil sponsoring burgeoning business and research activity in this direction.

This activity [also reinforced by the needs of other disabilities] had culminated in 1986 when in recognition of “an urgent and substantial need” Congress established the program of early intervention for infants and toddlers with disabilities. The preamble (cited below) clearly states the reasons and the goals of the program:

•  Enhance the development of handicapped infants and toddlers and to minimize their potential for developmental delay,
•  Reduce the educational costs to our society, including our Nation’s schools, by minimizing the need for special education and related services after handicapped infants and toddlers reach school age,
•  Minimize the likelihood of institutionalization of handicapped individuals and maximize the potential for their independent living in society, and
•  Enhance the capacity of families to meet the special needs of their infants and toddlers with handicaps. 

Subsequently in 1987 Lovaas published an article furthering the idea of early and intensive behavioral intervention paired with continual therapy as the most effective for children with autism, effectively laying ground for what would become a way of life for autistic children and adults.

Deconstruction of Early Intervention results – The first premise [of the legislated by Congress intervention program] that – “development of handicapped infants and toddlers can be enhanced and potential for developmental delay minimized” – in case of autism was unsubstantiated then as it remains today. The claim of the effectiveness of behavioral intervention is proclaimed repeatedly by behaviorism proponents but the examination of actual studies [subjective and limited] are unconvincing and disagree with census statistics.

The goal of the established program for “minimizing need for special education and related services when school age has been reached” – has clearly not been reached, nor the – “likelihood for institutionalization was minimized and potential for independent living maximized”. Most of the surveys and statistics of autistic populations contradict this.

The “capacity of families to truly meet the needs of their autistic children and toddlers” in this opinion not only hasn’t been enhanced but has been subverted via the abhorrent application of Special Education practice and specifically by the exemption [in case of autistic children] of the main principle of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child:  – “The child is recognized, universally, as a human being who must be able to develop physically, mentally, socially, morally, and spiritually, with freedom and dignity”.

The system has not cured autistic children, it has not prepared them for independent life, and it has not integrated them into society. Instead it has evolved into a pipeline that segregates autistic children from the early childhood and keeps them segregated for the remainder of their life. In the course of the past 20 years we have witnessed the effective disappearance of Autistic people from every-days public life. The fate of the last generation has been ministered to them as a life of isolation and captivity.