In the 1840s the perception of mental retardation began to change in the Western World. Until then the feebleminded were a natural part of the community. Since the 1840s they began to be seen step-by-step as a social problem. “Experts” started to develop ideas and interventions towards the feebleminded, in particular towards the “idiot” child. Mental retardation became a special field of educational interest and in several countries special care for “idiots” and “imbecile” children emerged. Distinct national traditions emerged in France, England, America, and Germany between the 1850s and the beginning of the twentieth century; in the Netherlands, however, there was little specialist care and few special initiatives were taken before the end of the century. The dominant expert opinion was that these people needed the standard care offered by the asylum. Two mid-nineteenth-century initiatives, however, are worth analyzing, since they signal the cautious start of special institutional education in the Netherlands: the Idiotenschool (School for Idiots) in The Hague and the class for idiots at the new asylum, Meerenberg. However, the only influential Dutch alternative to care in the asylum was offered by the end of the century by institutions with explicit religious motives, evolving from Catholic charity and Protestant philanthropy for all kinds of socially weak and dependent people. In most other Western countries by then the initial educational and therapeutic optimism was in decline; older educational ideas and optimism about the possibility of treating learning disabilities revived in these religious circles by the end of the century.