And so, my friends, we meet again, right here while reading the 15th issue of the third year of the newsletter for Special Education Today. I hope you’re well, happy, and feeling like the world’s going in a good direction (though that last wish may be somewhat problemsome, given the earthquakes, wars, sickness, and deprivation that seem to be affecting so many people). I have little hope of correcting those sorts of issues, but I can provide some content about special education that I hope readers will find valuable.
I suppose this could be considered another in a series of photos to which I’m subjecting the readership, with the series focused (teehee) on birds on our porch. I did not want to make it loop, like so many annoying gifs one sees on the Internet; in Substack’s system, one must click the "make-it-go” arrow.
I saw some much larger birds when I was on Afton Mountain this past week. We are past the time in the migration when there can be 1000s of hawks in a day. Still, there were Bald Eagles, Peregrine Falcons, Northern Harriers, American Kestrels, lots of Sharp-shinneds, and plenty of others. Visiting the hawk watch is a great way to avoid reading and writing SET content.
Table of contents
Here is catalog of the most recent posts, starting with last week’s newsletter.
Special Education Today Newsletter 3(14): What happened with SET over the previous week?
Autism in infants and toddlers may not persist: Which children who are diagnosed very early also meet criteria at early school ages?
ASAT newsletter: Have you read this month's issue already?
Royal report from Australia about disability: What's to be learned from a public examination of disability policies?
HTD!: What day is it?
I wrote a smokin' hot new fractions curriculum!: What would one want to know about that new program?
Friday photos fall 2023: Blood Lab Blues: Should I scream for help?
Please remember to go to the Website to see the most current content. When I’m not watching birds, I’m likely to be posting something on the site.
SET’s situation and use
Total subscribership passed 600 this past week. Yay! There was quite a burst of new subscriptions. I hope the trend continues. Now we can continue the ascent to 700. Please remember to share SET, even if you don’t use the buttons I embed in posts. Forward posts. Drop links into your discussion groups. Leave sticky notes on the lunchroom table?
As for those who are interacting with SET frequently, here’s a list of the leaders: Clay K., Joel M., Jan B., Tina C., Dan H., Michael K., MaryAnne L., Betsy T., Angelique W., Mike G., Ed M., and Karen M. Each of these folks has opened at least 100 SET posts. They should probably get some sort of a medal for their patience, no?
Commentary
A couple of things (actually, more than a couple) got me thinking this past week about observations I wanted to share. I don’t want to turn any one of them into a full commentary, so I’m just dropping a little bit about two of them, with the possibility that I may return to either or both in a subsequent post.
The title of the Australian Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability report seemed a bit odd to me. I’m pretty sure one would have difficulty locating people who advocate violent, abusive, neglectful, or exploitative treatment of people with disabilities. Then I thought a little more about this and I began to wonder, “What counts as abuse?” I remembered S. Engelmann’s book, “War Against the Schools’ Academic Child Abuse.” I thought, “Man, John, reconciling the ideas in the RC’s report and Zig’s perspective will present some challenges.” Zig was adamantly opposed to faulty instruction...would recommending faulty instruction for any kids, including those with disabilities, constitute neglect? Abuse? This would require a long post, or perhaps multiple posts.
Via Mike G., I learned of an opinion article that appeared 26 September 2023 in the popular magazine, Scientific American. It was about reading! Woohoo…? In “Two Thirds of American Kids Can’t Read Fluently: Phonics may be a popular way to teach reading, but it fails too many children,” Marion Blank presented some evidence that seems shaky, some facts that were [maybe?] distorted, some interpretations of research that I found suspect, some arguments that seem illogical, and some assertions of expertise that didn’t reassure me. As I reflected on this article, which Scientific American clearly marked as an opinion piece, I started creating a response. The response started to require me to provide a paragraph-by-paragraph (even sentence-by-sentence) analysis of Professor Blank’s article. I can’t fit that into a commentary like this. So, this thinking may also return in a longer (or a series) of posts.
Those two topics go atop of others (prevalence, causes, and treatment of school refusal; overview of reading; basics fo special education from identification through program planning to placement; and others) on which I’m already working. Sheesh, I think i’ve gotta spend less time watching hawks and more time writing for SET. Sigh.
If you, dear readers, have thoughts about any of these topics that you’d like to share, please let me know at JohnL[at]virginia[dot]edu (teehee). Better yet, drop a comment on this or any other post. I’d welcome observations and comments. I also recommend that you wash your hands frequently, wear your seatbelts, stay out of war zones, exercise regularly, and (please) teach your students well.
JohnL
SET Editor guy
Charlottesville
SET should not be confused with a product with the product that uses the same name and is published by the Council for Exceptional Children. SET predated CEC’s publication by decades. Despite my appreciation for CEC, this product is not designed to promote that organization.