Abstract: The UK government has committed itself, in theory, to a policy of ‘inclusive education’, and to reducing barriers to learning for children who struggle in mainstream schools. But there are many obstacles to such a project, not least of which is the government’s own insistence on raising ‘standards’: an insistence that is deeply problematic for those students to whom normative levels of examination performance are not accessible. This paper looks at the history of educational provision for such students, through the discourses which produce and are produced by that history. I divide the period up into three: the period from 1850-1899, marked by the prevalence of the charity/tragedy discourse, the period from 1899-1921, when a rights/protection discourse came to hold sway, and 1921-1944, when the medical discourse became more influential. Drawing on literature of the time, I show how various ‘common-sense’ meanings were established, and I examine how prevailing meanings and practices positioned those children and young people who were considered unable to benefit from mainstream schooling. These common-senses have not gone away, but underpin present understandings and practices. Although conditions for pupils now considered to have learning difficulties – or intellectual disabilities – have undoubtedly improved, their inscription into subordinate positions within a set of power relations largely constituted through the ability or otherwise to access dominant versions of academic ‘success’ has, I argue in this paper, remained constant.