Special Education Today Newsletter 1(27)
What's been posted in this lead-up to the holiday season?
Hello, SETters. I’m late in drafting this week’s newsletter, so I’m going to hustle through preparing it so that I can be sure it is published on time…which is before my bedtime. (Some of you know that my bedtime is pretty early…’cause how can I get up at 5-6 AM if I’m going to bed at midnight or later?)
This newsletter leads into the Western holiday season. For many of us, it’s a joyous time of year, not just because some folks celebrate their religious heritage at this time, but also because it is a time marking the end of an academic period. Woohoo, I remember those days: grading done, grades submitted, respite from faculty meetings, etc. Of course, now every day is like those days for me; ahh, retirement—let me recommend it.
Shout outs!
Michael K.
Jane B.
Clay K.
Lysandra C.
Shanna H.
Betsy T.
Tina C.
And a special flash of the electrons to LaRon S. who wasted many minutes of his valuable time sitting at lunch with me this past week. Not only was he a considerate listener and a thoughtful respondent, but he also made me think about important topics.
Please keep those likes, retweets, messages, and comments coming! It’s great for vistors to SET to see that subscribers are interacting with the content.
Contents
Here is a list of the posts posted (should I change the order: “posted posts,” teehee?) last week. Read ‘em and weep!
Seattle Times series on reading—What can we learn from five valuable articles?
Dear John: Letters from Angela —4—What does Angela say about her situation at age 32?
Dear John: Letters from Angela—3—What was the situation and what was Angela like when I met her?
Friday Photos—11—Why would LaRon Scott hang with me?
Astute observers, who would be just about all of y’all, will notice that I made a mistake in my naming comvention for the “Dear John” series of posts. I published them in the wrong order. Sigh. I presume y’all can adapt to my error! I promise, I’ll try to do better in the future. (Number 5 in the “Dear John” series will appear soon after folks get this newsletter.)
Commentary
I have devoted fewer hours to the graveyard for Solitude and its predecessors than I would like to do. However, the Fluvanna County Historical Society has been on the job; Tricia Johnson and her team are marshalling resources to help preserve that cemetery (and many others in Fluvanna). Folks, it’s about our ancestors.
Near the site that we hope to preserve there is a batch of remnants of a building. Tricia says this is likely “the cheese factory.” I do not have any memory of talk about this structure. Because I can’t ask my grandparents or my late mother, I have inquiried of my sister (first born in my immediate family; 7 years older than I) what she remembers; I hope she has some recollections.
Anthropologists and even archeologists report that many prehistoric societies devoted substantial efforts to funerary practices. Whether they we covered as in kurgans or interred in what we now call graves, our ancestors took care of their ancestors, of their dead. They must’ve known that they were standing on the shoulders of their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and earlier ancestors.
Folks, let me just say this again: It’s about our ancestors. In the early 1900s, my ancestors may have had a production facility for creating cheese shown in this photo. Fifty or one hundred years earlier, people’s ancestors may have been enslaved in that same acreage. “Owning” enslaved people is horrific, in our 2100s view, and it should be. Regardless of our contemporary rejection of enslavement, I think it is important for all of us to have the opportunity to honor our ancestors.
—JohnL
John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D.
Editor, https://specialeducationtoday.com/