Special Education Today newsletter 4(51)
What? Are we done for the year?
Howdy, Dear Readers! This is it! We are at the end of the year. I’m feeling like the numbering is off, but this will be the final issue for volume four. It’s a wrap!
So, here’s issue 51 of volume four. It is the 1330th publication in SET’s history. For those of you who have been around since the proverbial get-go, it probably seems like a lot of posts. It’s certainly feeling like a lot of writing to me! More on this in the editorial at the end.
Before closing up shop for the summer hiatus, let’s get this last newsletter out to you, DRs. Here you’ll find the usual contents: photo, updates, list of posts, and comments.
Photo
Some folks may remember that we have had Great Crested Flycatchers nesting dang near on our back porch in the last few years. There is a nest again this year. The pair has built its nest in a black-plastic pipe that Pat put around the metal arms holding some bird feeders.1 They are gorgeous birds with an unmistakable whistle-like call. (Learn more from All About Birds or Audubon.)
This photo shows a cat’s eye view of a GCF (I think it’s a female given the less obvious crest) that stopped on the deck railing. The photo sort of mimics the view, from just behind his head, of Bill the Cat (see his ears?). Bill got to do some “bird study” from his perch next to the window.
Bill and his mother, Lucy, are indoor cats, they eat, sleep, play, and relieve themselves inside the confines of our house (at least the parts in which they are allowed to venture). Even though they aer restricted to the indoors, they still grow excited when they can get close to a bird (of a Five-lined Skink, or any other small thing that moves quickly). The GCFs sometimes fly at the window glass, apparently when they can see the reflection of a bird on the window pane. If Bill is watching at those times, he might make a leap at the inside of the window.
Ugh.
Update
Just a few notes in this section for this week.
First, as I mentioned, I’m fretful abut misnumbering of the issues of the SET newsletter for this volume. It seems like this one should #50, not #51. I’m not going to go back and recheck the numbering though; if I discovered an error, then I would have to renumber them to fix it. It’s just going to have to go down in history (as they say). Besides, maybe it’s not a mistake; maybe there have been 51 Mondays since 1 July 2025 when 4(1) appeared.
Second, when I published the first issue of the fourth volume 50 weeks ago (1 July 2024), the mailing went to 704 subscribers. As of today it was read 520 times (it’s out there on the free side and could be gathering readers still). (For fun: The photo was of a fish; I invited readers to identify it and Mike N. correctly responded that it was a gar.) This issue will go to almost 1000 addresses, so the size of the community has grown
Third, I Jane B., Mitch Y., and Dan H. dropped comments this week and Paul C. restocked a post. It’s wonderful to have comments just because. But’s it’s also wonderful that our colleagues are contributing content for the community. I keep hoping that we find something approaching collegial discussion in the comments, and Mitch, Jane, and Dan helped move us closer to that end with their additions in their comments. Thank you, all three!
Fourth, Welcome to new free subscribers. I may not have a list of all of you, but the list does include Billie-Jean, Lanya, Tricia, Denise, and a couple of “ghosts” (new subscribers who registered but then disappeared; those might be accounts that do not meet Substack’s terms of service and so were deleted.
Fifth, thanks to the many of you who dropped likes on posts. There were so many this past week (> 50?) that I am not sure I have an accurate count.
Sixth, a special thanks to folks who have been sharing SET with others. Here are the top 10 sharers (# of shares): Kristen McM. (1114), Betsy T. (770), Jan H. (448), Jennifer K. (308), Cheryl Z. (226), Jean S. (147), Bryan W. (132), Bev J. (110), Carol W., (89), and Tina C. (88).
And, last (but way important), I want to thank the paying subscribers for SET. There were zero new paid subscriptions or upgrades this past week. But, there are many of you who renewed your subscriptions; according to Substack, the renewal rate for SET is above the average for all the publications on Substack. These folks are among the paid subscribers: June R., Carol W., Mitch Y., Michele M. Jane C., Kristen McM., Ed. M., Nancy C-W, Joel M., Tina C., Clay K., Marilyn F., Bev J., Jim P., Vicki W., Michael K., Jane B., Susan O., Debbie R., Bob P., Dan H. Jen W., Jim S., Rhonda B., Mike N., Rebecca S., Anna O., and Paige P. There are about 50 others. Thank you very much!
List of posts
I’m still not settled on what to call this section. I mislabeled it a “table of contents” for many weeks over the years. Sigh. The floor is open for nominations.
Special Education Today newsletter 4(50): What happened during the week that just passed?
Kennedy to re-create federal advisory committee on vaccines: What could this action portend for special education?
Yet another school shooting: Are you prepared for a rant?
US federal funding perspective: What does the current situation portend?
US standard for proving discrimination affirmed: What's in the US. Supreme Court's holding in the case of A.J.T. v Osseo Area Schools?
$50 million for an autism institute in Philadelphia: What will the city and others around Earth gain from this center?
How nay-sayers say "nay": What's in "Phonics Denialism?"
Disability advocate survived shooting: Who is Hope Hoffman?
If you missed any one of these, take advantage of the current situation and read them for free. If you want to be able to return to them any time later, please become a paying subscriber and ensure your access to them (and all the other posts) in the archives.
Commentary
It seems like it has been a long year with lots happening here on SET. You, DRs, have had the opportunity (and I hope, the pleasure) of reading reposts of columns by the marvelous Tom Lovitt and the first of a planned series of reposts by Barbara Bateman. There have been posts about the various academic areas (yep, reading, writing, and arithmetic) as well as social development. Of course, there have been articles about specific disabilities such as autism, regarding behavior management as well as There have also been posts about history but not so much about the social studies, rather about prescientific assessment and treatment methods or bogus rewrites of special education history about Helen Keller.
We covered some conference meetings (e.g., TECBD and Bader-Kauffman) and government activities, ranging from the appointment of government leaders for special education to discussions about eliminating government structures for supporting special education. There have been posts about causes of disability, legal and judicial matters, and issues such as inclusion.
We published the difficult posts about the passing of colleagues (to mention a few, Jim Kauffman, Rud Turnbull, and Lynn Fuchs). Any time is a good time to celebrate the wonderful contributions to special education that these folks made.
There were posts about assessment (e.g., diagnosis of autism) and interventions (e.g., teaching social behavior) as well as more specific topics such as reading fluency and teaching safe behavior around water.
Now, DRs, this has been only an ad-hoc and limited recitation of the year’s contents. I may have omitted some topic that is your hobby horse or some post you particularly liked. Sorry. However, that’s OK. The entire corpus is available in the archive. Dig in during the summer break.
And watch for SET to return in July 2025. Although there will be posts scattered over the days between now and early July, the first newsletter of volume 5 will arrive in everyone’s mailbox 7 July 2025.
In the meantime, take care of yourselves. Eat well (and healthily), exercise, wear your seatbelts, and and get lots of rest. Also, hang with some pals and take care of each other. Thank a teacher and, of course, teach our children well.
JohnL
John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D.
UVA Professor Emeritus
Founder & Editor, https://www.SpecialEducationToday.com/
SET should not be confused with a 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 nor should the views expressed here be considered to represent the views or policies of that organization.
Footnote
The black pipes are actually a hand-me-down from Jim Kauffman. He used them to keep squirrels from using the a\ms of the supports for the feeders to gain access to the bird feeders. Because the pipes are not anchored to the supports, they spin around under the squirrels’ weight, so the critters can’t stay on them.