Here is the second issue of the second volume of the weekly newsletter for Special Education Today. As with previous issues, most readers will find the contents familiar. There is a status report, some notes of appreciation to readers, a table listing the contents from the past week, and a little commentary (which is a personal note about the passing of my sister).

Please feel free to read it all on the Web at https://www.specialeducationtoday.com.

Status update

This past week, SET lost one subscriber and gained one new subscriber. Of course, I'd like to see the number of the latter far surpassing the number of the former (i.e., growth in subscriptions), but that just hasn't been what has happened lately. Meanwhile, I hope you are fueling the possibility that growth will occur by telling administrators, teachers, parents, and others about SET.

I am moving toward fully implementing the paid side. All readers will continue to see posts available for free (e.g., this newsletter). They will also see some posts that only show the first few paragraphs before displaying the dreaded paywall. Paid subscribers will have access to everything immediately.

You, dear subscribers, are almost certainly the reason for any growth we see. I don't think people new to SET just found in lying on the front lawns or their driveways. To the extent that you share SET posts and recommend SET to colleagues, you help boost the base.

Those subscribers who pay for a monthly, annual, or supporter-level subscription help make it possible for all the free readers to get some of the content. Thanks!

Flashes of the electrons

Sometimes writers “tip their caps” or “flash their headlights” to people who expose them (the writers) to new content. Here I use the phrase “flash of the electrons.” And I’d especially like to acknowledge my long-time friend and admired colleague, Joel M. for monitoring sources (especially, his local newspaper, the New York Times) and alerting me to possible content for posts that he’s found.

• Here I’ll acknowledge the recurring support from commenters, let me tip my cap to Joel M. and Jane B. for dropping comments on posts. These folks use their paid subscriber status to make sage observations, and I do mean “sage.” Look for their notes on current and future posts, and create a paying subscription of your own to be able to add your comments. I think it’s important for members of the community to discuss “stuff.”

• Thanks for the “likes” this past week from Donna P., Ronnie D., Clayton K., Jane B., Barbara M., Peggy K.-S., Sarah P., Shanna H., and Rhonda B. One doesn’t have to be a paid subscriber to drop a like, and it’s great to know which posts resonate with you (some of y’all repeatedly! Hide, Jane B., Ronnie D., and Clayton K., ‘cause I’m looking at you!) and that you’re letting other readers know what you consider valuable. Thanks!

• Thanks, also, to all y’all who have followed @specialedtoday over on Twitter. I’m a bit concerned about TW’s influence. It seems too often to be a forum for amplifying misinformation. But it can be a way to disseminate accurate info. To the extent it does amplify accurate info, I hope that users find it a great way to keep up with what’s happening with SET. I know I need to do a better job of announcing posts on that medium. As I get a chance, I’ll push notices to followers of that TW account. And a special flash to Betsy T., who keeps mentioning SET on Twitter. Please help SET by retweeting those notices and posting your own tweets about content even when I don’t.

And I hope that soon the list of followers, likers, and commenters grows so long that I simply can’t keep listing them all.

Table of contents

This past week, as has been true throughout this history of SET, I posted messages to the Web site repeatedly during the week. Sometimes, I push one of those posts out via the email list, but you can see all of them if you are a paid subscriber and you visit the site regularly.

Since last week, the content of SET was composed of the following posts. I hope they're more than drivel.

Make sure you go to the Web site to see the most current content; new posts will drop throughout the coming week. You’ll find an HTML-formated version of this newsletter (much prettier than this version that comes in the e-mail—though it is also HTML formatted) as well as any newer posts.

Commentary

Last week, readers may remember that I discussed how I missed my late brother, Bill, who died in 2009 (today’s his b’day!). Right now, I miss my big sister, Hannah, and Bill. Hannah died Wednesday night or Thursday morning, apparently peacefully in her sleep; Hannah's housekeeper found the body Thursday morning.

As with my brother Bill, Hannah and I had conflicts. The good news is that in this case (and in Bill's case, too) those conflicts were way substantially less frequent than the good times during my many years as a member of the family.

I remember that when I started school in Manassas, VA, Hannah was in high school. The little, soon-to-be-raised elementary school that I attended was on the way to Hannah's high school, so together we would walk the ~6 blocks to my school passing our father's parents' house on the way, crossing a set of at least two train tracks at the Manassas train station (shown, by the way, on the cover of the musical album of that name by Stephen Stills and his pals), after passing through the tiny downtown of Manassas at that time.

She not only showed me the path and how to take it safely, but we also had fascinating conversations along the way. One morning, she was concerned that damp-foggy morning air would make her hair frizzy; at six, I was amazed that such an issue would matter to a person, but I got that lesson in taking the perspective of someone else. Another morning she allowed as how she thought a boy she knew was pretty cool; I thought he was, too, but I suspect our reasons were different, as I thought it was nifty that he had talked with little me about his car. On another, she disagreed with me about how interesting it would be to explore a culvert that ran under the street between our house and our paternal grandparents' house. On yet another, she regaled me with a story about a man who fell under a train, which amputated one of his legs, and that he was saved by a quick thinking by-stander who staunched the bleeding by plugging the arteries and veins in the severed thigh with his fingers. You know, as a six-year old, one doesn't have a lot of reason to doubt your beloved big sister's stories.

In her adult life, Hannah provided chemical-dependency counseling to a niche group: medical professionals. She was still holding “groups” at 80 years of age and had no interest in retiring. Hannah was a clincian, not a researcher, but we’d talk about research I’d run across in my meanderings.

Hannah adopted a buddhist perspective on life and religion. She was particularly interested in the bon tradition (I think there should be an omlate on that ‘o’; I believe it’s pronounced “boan”). According to buddhist thinking, when one dies, one enters an intermediate form of existence called the bardo; it is just another version of life and it occupies the time between death and rebirth. Depending on how well one has practiced one's buddhism, the bardo can cause one hallucinations and danger in the bardo orcan allow one to have great opportunities for transcendence. (Y’all who know more than I do about this topic are welcome to set me straight in the comments!)

I am not qualified to evaluate how Hannah is doing with her trip through the bardo, but knowing that she worked hard on her buddhist practice and that many buddhists are burning many candles for her, I trust that she will experience good things. For my part, I wish her lots of love and safe travels.

Yesterday (Sunday), Corey and I visited the family plot where Bill is buried. It was to be a birthday celebration with him. But I had to tell him our sister died. That was tough. Life comes and goes…I understand that. It’s hard for me, though, to realize that I’ll never again have a live, FtF, visit with them. Still, I’m going to remember the good times we had together.

I also like to think that both Hannah and Bill would join me in promoting the idea of teaching our children to care for others. And, so, as usual, I recommend that you take care of yourselves (e.g., wear those seatbelts), take care of others (e.g., use masks in situations when not doing so would put others at risk), and teach our children 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.