At 11:41 PM 4/20/99 -0400, you wrote:
>IMoreover,I reminded them that "mental
>retardation" is itself a euphemism for older terms such as "moron"
>and idiot".
So you acknowledge that labels evolve, you don't advocate returning to the
old labels. I think the students are trying to tell you that this label is
in the process of evolving, your quick research and other's comments
support this notion. That would be an interesting topic in an intro psych
class.
I read (no cite, long time ago) that labels become associated with negative
stereotypes of a group so after a while, the group or the group's advocates
change the name to shed some of the associations. I think this rings true
when we think of names that used to be fine to use for Irish, Jews,
Italians, Chinese, etc.
Erica Klein
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
