Dr. Asa Hilliard III in Detroit, Afternoon Session, circa 1985

In this undated presentation, Dr. Asa G. Hilliard, III speaks to an audience of public school teachers and administrators in Detroit, Michigan. Hilliard addresses upcoming changes to special education in the United States, arguing that educators need to take part in “the revolution” in order to make it beneficial to school children and to schools. He also explores the history of special education in the United States, with special attention to the origins of IQ testing with Alfred Binet in France and Lewis Terman’s modified adoption of Binet’s methods, the so-called Stanford-Binet test. Hilliard argues that all students are capable of succeeding in school and that the most important question in education is whether a particular approach benefits children.