Special Education Today newsletter 5(3)
What happened during previous week of SET?
Good [pick one: morning, afternoon, evening] and welcome to this week’s newsletter for Special Education Today. This is, indeed, the 3rd issue of the fifth volume of SET It is also dated 21 July 2025 and it’s the 1355th post in the history of SET. Thank you for your subscription and reading of this and other posts.
Let’s get to the usual contents, including a photo, some updates, a catalog of recent contents, and a commentary.
Photo
So, Dear Readers, I fret about sending lots of messages to you. Every week, some subscribers unsubscribe to SET. That’s understandable...not their “cup of tea.”
Here’s your spam for this week. I took this shot at my local grocers’ (It’s a big box; I could go a mile or two just walking the aisles). And it obviously refers to a lunch meet familiar to US readers.
Of course, the term “spam” also refers to “unsolicited commercial email messages.” I’m worried that readers will see SET as spam.1
So, I fret about sending too many messages. What’s the tipping point? Quasi survey: No need to submit your responses, but here are some choices:
“Un hunh…got it. Good.”
“Oh! Thanks…interesting”
“Yeah…so?”
“Sure…but I don’t care.”
“Get this [excrement] our of my mailbox!”
Update on SET
Thank you to paying subscribers who renew your memberships. Double thank you! The billing system (Stipe.com) may bill your card repeatedly if something goes awry (e.g., the card expiration date passes or the CVC number changes). Fix it up via Stripe if you can. Let me know directly if you have trouble, as I can possibly do something. from my end.)
Welcome to new subscribers, including especially Mary P., Kristen S-G, Ke H., Shannon G., and Mary Beth N….and especially K. Huang (who got a gift from one of you Dear Readers). I may have missed some new denizens of SET-land, but these folks made it through the Substack maze and are officially registered for SET, You, Dear Readers, are now part of “the gang.” You might want to know more about the others among your fellow denizens, and you can find out who they are by following the foregoing links.
Thank you. too. to the Dear Readers who drop “likes” on posts. Those register on the Big Intertubes. Gaggle, Me-me-meta, and other big players on the Internet see those likes, and they raise the profile of SET in those players’ evaluation of Web sites. And let me just say that I’m hoping those big players recognize SET as a go-to source.
SET is still hovering at just fewer than 1000 full-on subscribers. In addition to those registered subscribers, there are a couple of 100 more who “follow” SET. They just see notices when I post them on the social-media version of Substact, I’m not as careful to alerting readers using that mechanism as I am alerting you, Dear Readers, about the latest (and greatest?) from SET via e-mail.
Important: SET will begin to feature posts by two international contributors. Li-Yu Hung of National Taiwan Normal University and Paula Matins of University of Minho are planning to drop articles about developments in special education in their neighborhoods. They join David Bateman, Mandy Rispoli, and Mitchel Yell was contributes, and I am very pleased to welcome them to the authorship group for SET.
Table of contents (haha)
Here are links to the posts published there week beginning 14 July 2025.
Special Education Today newsletter 5(2): Who's ready for a look back at the week that just was? (If not, delete and wait'll next week!)
Couple of new 'stacks: Anybody know who Doug Carnine and Dan Willingham are?
US Supreme Court stayed injunction that blocked dismantling of Education Department: What is this stoppage of a stopping?
My words! Should we teach students to pull words down or build them up??
Perspective on dismissal of top quant for US ED statistics: What happened to Commissioner Peggy Carr?
Doctors whiff on relevant screening for disabilities of infants: Would you believe they're like baseball batters who struck out swinging?
Now, some of you Dear Readers may consider this a pretty weak week. I can understand. Where are the controversial articles? Can’t SET publish more clickbait?
Wouldn't readers like to see stories with photos of naked kids with disabilities? Sorry, no cigar: Not the SET style. However, just in case it becomes an SET feature (or if you want the usual content), please subscribe so you won’t miss the latest, OMG, salacious news! At least you’ll get some recent news and info.
Commentary (or story)
I had the pleasure of having lunch this past week with two delightful neighbors of SET. Peggy Weiss, David Bateman, and I met at a local eatery named Maple Pine Breakfast and Thai. It’s over there on the northeastern side of the Rivanna, just across Free Bridge and a few hundred meters from places along the southwestern side of The River from whence I’ve taken and sent photos over the years. I’ve eaten there previously with the marvelous Bill Ferster and Ludy Benjamin, whom I’ve mentioned in these pages (haha) previously.
Well, anyway, David and Peggy and I had a ton of fun. It was an enjoyable, engaging, delightful, and wonderful time 2 Good food. Good talk. Lots of fun…until I bit my tongue.
Peggy said, “Are you bleeding?” She moved her had around her own mouth.
I didn’t know that I was bleeding, but when I wiped my mouth and looked at the napkin there was blood. Lots of blood! I checked my watch. “OK, John…go into data mode. It’s 1 PM.”
I thought, “Okay…bleeding…stop it. Apply pressure.. Keep pressure constant for 15-20 min.” So I began applying pressure to the wound. But, where’s the wound? I didn’t feel any particular pain. The bleeding part being somewhere around my mouth…uhm, I can’t see from where the blood I coming. “Upper lip? Lower lip. Inside right…left…tongue. Am I getting the right spot? Where should I pinch and hold…for 20 min?”
Because my cardiologist prescribed a very popular blood thinner, I am familiar with bleeding. If I get a scratch, I bleed a lot. I have repeatedly spent lots of time (in ~20-minute increments) staunching the flow of blood from injuries (e.g., nose bleeds!) over the past 10-12 years. Ugh.
I asked where the blood was appearing.
Peggy helped. She stuck out her tongue and mirrored me. She pointed to the middle-front of her own tongue. Got it! Thanks!
So…yep. I’m holding my tongue. It’s hard to talk. I can’t answer questions with much more than “yes” or “no” in sign language. We were then playing an odd version of charades!
David volunteered to drive me home. He’d arrived at the venue on his electric bicycle, so he had flexibility to drive my car.. “I can drive you home…or anywhere!” Peggy said she could follow David and then bring him back to get his bike. (Peggy used to live about 5-6 doors south of us…she knows our neighborhood.)
I thought that I might just go to a nearby Doc-in-the-Box…but nooo. Docs there won't know my history, and I would have a hard time explaining while holding my tongue. Maybe David could take me to my hospital emergency room (I’ve been there before for a bleeding even!) But, some how I’d have to get with Pat, who knows about the blood-thinner bleeding.
My two wonderful friends are cooking up alternative plans. I’m just wanting to stop the bleeding. And I’m holding my tongue…and musing on the humor of that phrase “hold your tongue.”
I released my hold on my tongue and tested for blood with a fresh napkin. Still bleeding. Ugh. OK…another 20 min.
Twenty minutes later—and lots of talking, but not by me—I was still bleeding. But, I needed to alert Pat. Texting one handed with my phone slipping around on the table top…she has heard plenty about my bleeding, so it’s a mercifully simple text. Then Peggy took my phone and explained more of the details.
Cutting to the end: David drove my car (and me) home. We all went into the house for hugs and such. Peggy and David left and Pat and I went to the hospital emergency room.
And we were at the ER from about 2:00 PM until 6:30 PM. Over those 4.5 hours, I got a look at how human services worked. I got to hold my tongue. Life moves slowly when you’re having a lot of fun holding your tongue. Ultimately, before the ER docs began Tier Two services, I checked the gauze they’d given me to hold my tongue…and voila…just a tiny dot of blood. No more flow…and after another 60-90 min of monitoring my progress (absence of bleeding), I was discharged,
The day started nicely, and it ended OK. It was not a harrowing afternoon. It started out nicely! But, I didn’t get to write a line of SET text for a long time. Poor pals and Pat had to sacrifice hours of their time for the fat old bleeder. Sigh.
And, what can we all learn from this escapade? Well, I’m taking away this: It’s great to have compassionate and smart people helping when you’re in a pinch (teehee). It’s a little like special education, you know. I was so fortunate to have folks with me who helped ensure that I got the necessary care. I’m glad that Peggy, David, and Pat (and the ER peeps) were prepared and able to help me. I hope that we all routinely do the same: We take care of ourselves and our colleagues and neighbors, and that allows us (of course) teach our children well.
Peace & love,
JohnL
John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D., UVA Professor Emeritus,
Founder & Editor, Special Education Today
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.
Footnotes
If anyone does, please write to me directly and let me know what factors of he mailings made you respond that way. What were the discriminative stimuli? Help!
That would be my estimation of the time. You’d have to ask them to get a more objective take on it.