Editing Samuel Gridley Howe (section)

==Philanthropic activities==
Howe also helped establish the ''Massachusetts School for Idiot and Feeble-Minded Youth'',<ref name="brown.edu" /><ref name="ragged-edge-mag.com">Pfeiffer, David. ''Samuel Gridley Howe and 'Schools for the Feebleminded'', http://www.ragged-edge-mag.com/0103/0103ft2.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427172108/http://www.ragged-edge-mag.com/0103/0103ft2.html |date=April 27, 2017 }} Accessed January 24, 2009.</ref> the Western Hemisphere's oldest publicly funded institution serving mentally disabled people. He founded the school in 1848 with a $2,500 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=2500|start_year=1848}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) appropriation from the Massachusetts Legislature.<ref name="brown.edu">Mitchell, Martha. ''Encyclopedia Brunoniana '', "[https://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=H0280 Howe, Samuel Gridley] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200517183809/https://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=H0280 |date=May 17, 2020 }}". Accessed January 24, 2009.</ref> "Idiot" was at that time considered a polite term for individuals with mental and intellectual disabilities. Howe was successful in his attempt to educate mentally disabled people, but this led to other problems. Some commentators argued that those with disabilities did so well in schools such as Howe's that they should permanently reside there.<ref name="ragged-edge-mag.com"/> Howe was opposed to this reasoning, arguing that mentally disabled people had rights and that segregating them from the rest of society would be detrimental.<ref name="ragged-edge-mag.com"/>

In 1866, Howe gave the keynote address at the opening of the New York State Institution for the Blind at [[Batavia, New York]]. He shocked the audience by warning about the dangers of segregation based on disability:
{{blockquote|
We should be cautious about establishing such artificial communities ... for any children and youth; but more especially should we avoid them for those who have natural infirmity ... Such persons spring up sporadically in the community, and they should be kept diffused among sound and normal persons ... Surround insane and excitable persons with sane people and ordinary influences; vicious children with virtuous people and virtuous influences; blind children with those who see; mute children with those who speak; and the like ...<ref>Howe, Samuel G. ''In ceremonies on laying the corner-stone of the New York State institution for the blind, at Batavia, Genesee County, New York'', Batavia, N.Y.:  Henry Todd, 1866</ref>}}

Howe founded the State Board of Charities of Massachusetts in 1863, the first board of the sort in the United States. He served as its chairman from that time until 1874.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Samuel Gridley Howe {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/social-sciences-and-law/social-reformers/samuel-gridley-howe#Howe-Sam |access-date=2023-03-11 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref>

Howe made a last trip to Greece in 1866, to carry relief to [[Crete|Cretan]] refugees during the Cretan Revolution.<ref>Spofford, Harriet Prescott. "In the Greek Revolution," ''New York Times'', (July 17, 1909) https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/07/17/101029589.pdf Accessed January 24, 2009.</ref>

[[File:SamuelGridleyHoweGrave.jpg|thumb|Grave of Samuel Gridley Howe in [[Mount Auburn Cemetery]]]]