Abstract
In this paper, the theory on the educational theory by Samuel A. Kirk and G. Orville Johnson is focused. In the 1960s, many practitioners, researchers, and the policy makers in the field of the mentally retardation in the United States, had shared the same goal of the education for the mentally retarded as their vocational adjustment and the social independence of them. In the field of the special education for the mentally retarded, an alternative argument has been developed on the curriculum based on the academic subject or the vocational training. For instance, the President's Panel on Mental Retardation founded by President Kennedy, submitted that many people with the mental retardation had the ability to get the unskilled jobs and the independent living, and proposed a policy for the vocational training and the vocational rehabilitation. Many insisted on the vocational training for the realization of this goal. In contrast, Kirk and Johnson thought much of an academic curriculum in the education for the mentally retarded children, particularly for those with the mild disabilities to realize these goals of their social independence of them. Kirk and Johnson argued for the definitions of the educable mentally retarded children and the trainable mentally retarded children on the basis of the standards of the possibility of the academic curriculum, and they considered that the development of an academic curriculum and the possibility of the social independence. The theory by Kirk and Johnson made sense as the educational theory for the realization of the social adjustment, economic independence and social participation of the mentally retarded, and the curriculum focused the development of the academic abilities and the skills. For this reason their theory was unique in the field of the special education for the mentally retarded individuals. There still remain a number of anresolved issues. One is about the implementation of the theory in the special schools for the mentally retarded. And another is how were the theory succeeded in the field of research. Future research and analysis should focus on these issues.
