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Article
NPR: National Public Radio

Npr: Week of August 1 2016: Hinckley, States Tightened Use of the Insanity Plea

For Students 9th - 10th
The insanity ruling that sent President Ronald Reagan's would-be assassin John Hinckley, Jr., to a government psychiatric hospital rather than prison was handed down 34 years ago, but its repercussions still affect hundreds, if not...
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Article
Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopedia Britannica: 300 Women Who Changed History: Dorothea Dix

For Students 9th - 10th
Encyclopaedia Britannica provides a biography of Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802-1887 CE), most noted for her report to the Massachusetts legislature about the inhumane conditions under which the mentally ill are held in prisons. Her report led...
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Curated OER

Wikipedia: Natl Historic Landmarks in Sc: Mills Building, Sc State Hospital

For Students 9th - 10th
Designed by Robert Mills, used from 1827 to 1937; "the oldest building in the country to be used continuously as a mental institution and one of the first mental hospitals built with public funds".
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Primary
Blackdog Media

Classic Reader: "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" by H. P. Lovecraft

For Students 9th - 10th
This is the text of the short story "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" by H. P. Lovecraft. An intern in a mental hospital relates his experience with Joe Slater, an inmate who died at the facility a few weeks after being confined as a criminally...
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Curated OER

Wikipedia: National Historic Landmarks in New York: Buffalo State Hospital

For Students 9th - 10th
Architect H. H. Richardson's largest commission; advent of his characteristic Richardsonian Romanesque style; used to care for the mentally ill; grounds designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.
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Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: Prison and Asylum Reform

For Students 5th - 8th
Two of the social movements of the 1830s and 1840s looked to improving the lot of the mentally ill and those in prison. Read about Dorothea Dix who crusaded for humane treatment and hospitals for the insane. Several others worked to make...
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Website
National Institutes of Health

National Library of Medicine: Diseases of the Mind

For Students 9th - 10th
A virtual exhibit to expose the early history of psychiatry in the United States through the year 1900.
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Lesson Plan
Texas State Historical Association

Texas State Historical Association: Health and Science in Texas [Pdf]

For Teachers 4th - 8th
An activity guide where students refer to the Texas Almanac, which is free to download, for information needed to complete assigned tasks. In this lesson, they research health care services in Texas counties and compare these to birth...
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Other

Philip Mc Rae: From Distraction to Addiction?

For Teachers 9th - 10th
To better understand the scope of physical, mental and social consequences of digital technologies in areas such as exercise, homework, identity formation, distraction, cognition, learning, technology compulsions, nutrition and sleep...