Friday photos with John M. 1998

Who was John Mesinger?

As I was scanning through my photos library, I came across a trove of images of my late colleague, John Mesinger. I thought, “Dang, probably few people remember him!” Well, here are a couple of memories that I hope will help folks to know that he was a contributor to our concern about kids with disabilities.

The UVA faculty of 1998 feting John Mesinger (front and center) on his retirement. Back row: R. Kneedler, M. Snell, D. Hallahan, S. Cohen, J. Kauffman; front: J. Lloyd. J. Mesinger, C. Heuchert. Photo © 2025 by John Wills Lloyd, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

John was especially concerned about kids with emotional and behavioral disorders. He passionately—but professionally—advocated for those kids and their teachers. He came at the topic from a mixture of experimental psychology (his graduate training) and compassion. He cared about kids and their teachers. He freely admitted that in his view objective evidence was less important than subjective impressions (“Don’t clog up my pores with data!”). He created and got funding for a teacher training program (1986) that he called the “educateur program” (with a special pronunciation of the last syllable) that required students to devote as many credit hours to courses about understanding intra-psychic foundations of behavior, personal communication, and dramatic skills as it did to effective teaching.

In addition to his articles about his vision for teacher education for kids with EBD, one of John’s important contributions to the academic literature was an argument in 1985 that cautioned special educators to “tap the brakes” on eliminating special education. In response to a paper by a couple of UVA’s graduates that recommended merging special and regular education, John wrote a commentary entitled “‘A Rationale for the Merger of Special and Regular Education’ or, is it Now Time for the Lamb to Lie down with the Lion?” In it he essentially questioned the 1980s push for all-out inclusion. Here is his first paragraph:

I began reading the Stainbacks' [1984] article in the October issue of Exceptional Children with enthusiasm which quickly turned to puzzlement as I saw the trend they were developing. Then I recalled the story of the blind wise men and the elephant. It appears from the article that the Stainbacks are exploring a side of the beast other than mine.

He went on to argue a case with which I agree, though the argument might omit some logical and rhetorical steps. If one cuts through the rhetoric, he essentially concluded that he is “reluctant to abandon special education as a system until I see evidence of a drastic improvement in regular educational teacher training and professional practice in the public schools.” In my view, that statement continues to be quite relevant 40 years after John made it.

John Frederick Mesinger was the son of Thelma and William Mesigner. He was born in Indianapolis, IN, but he spent most of his childhood in New York. He took a bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College, a master’s from Butler University, and a Ph.D., from Purdue University. After a stint in the US Army, he worked as a school psychologist in Pennsylvania and then moved to Charlottesville, VA, in 1964 where he became a member of the faculty at the University of Virginia until 1998 when he retired. In his retirement he maintained interests in local lacrosse leagues, raising orchids, keeping bee hives, maintaining aquaria, raising and training dogs, supporting early reading efforts, and reading extensively about military (especially naval) history. He could talk about these (and other matters) for extended periods of time. John passed away 13 September 2016. The obituary his children posted captures some of these interests and more; it is worth a read.

When I got to UVA in 1978, I noted that there was another “John” on the faculty. I figured that to make clear who was writing notes to other faculty members, I should use “JohnL” rather than just “John.” Yep, for those who have wondered why I use “JohnL,” blame it on “JohnM.”

Early in my employment at UVA, John invited me to give a guest lecture in a class he was teaching.¹ I went into the session with pretty much my full-on behavioral views on display, looking like a cartoon skeleton with my bones like high-voltage electrical zig-zags. I told the students about my work with families, schools, and kids and pitched the objective benefits for those groups. In his comments afterwards, John politely told me (the young know-it-all) that, well, objective behavior was not the entire game, there were things like people’s feelings; that was what was really important.

Pat and I lived not far from John and his wonderful wife, Marge, in the 1990s. We would visit at each others’ houses.² I’m pretty damn sure that John would have some questions for me about this post. I’ll wait for him to compose them and pass them along to me.

References

Mesinger, J. F. (1985). Commentary on “A Rationale for the Merger of Special and Regular Education” or, is it now time for the lamb to lie down with the lion?. Exceptional Children, 51(6), 510-512.

Mesinger, J. F. (1986). Alternative Education for Behaviorally Disordered Youths: A Promise Yet Unfulfilled. Behavioral Disorders, 11(2), 98-108. https://doi.org/10.1177/019874298601100206

Stainback, W., & Stainback, S. (1984). A rationale for the merger of special and regular education. Exceptional Children, 51(2), 102-111. https://doi.org/10.1177/001440298405100201

Footnote

1. I think it was Joan and Stephen Safran, but it might have been Susan and Bill Stainback who were the teaching assistants for the class.

2. I have some other photos or those visits. Maybe I can post some of them another Friday.