Welcome to the first issue of the second volume of the weekly newsletter for Special Education Today. If you have been reading these missives for a few weeks or months, you’ll find the types of contents quite familiar. There is a status report, some thank-you notes to readers, a table listing the contents from the past week, and a little commentary. Please feel free to read it all on the Web at https://www.specialeducationtoday.com.

Status update

Once again, there was one unsub and one sub on the free side this week. I like to think that SET is maintaining it’s balance! I’d like to see it growing, of course, so please tell administrators, teachers, parents, and others about it.

I am moving toward fully implementing the paid side. All readers will still see posts available for free. They will also see some posts that only show the first few paragraphs. Paid subscribers will see everything immediately.

Although the SET community has not grown substanitially in the past few weeks, it has grown substantially in the last year. The number of subscribers has doubled from the time I moved all the subscribers for SpedTalk to SET. I hope that this trend continues (or increases!).

You, Subscribers, are almost certainly the reason for growth. To the extent that you share SET posts and recommend SET to colleagues, you help boost the base. Thanks!

Recognition (AKA: Flashes of the electrons)

Leading with the commenters, let me tip my cap to Clay K., Michael K., and Anita A. for comments on posts. These folks use their subscriber status to make sage observations, and I do mean “sage.” Look for their notes on current and future posts, and subscribe to be able to add your own comments. I think it’s important for members of the community to discuss “stuff.”

• Thanks for the “likes” this past week from Clay K., Michael K., Betsy T., Debbie G., Lorraine S., and Christina 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!) and that you’re letting other readers know what you consider valuable. Thanks!

• Thanks to all y’all who have followed @specialedtoday. I’m a bit concerned about Twitter’s influence. It seems too often to be a forum for amplifying misinformation. But it can be a way to amplify 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, again, 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.

Table of contents

Of course, most of y’all know that I post 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 them all if you visit the site regularly.

Since last week, these posts were the content of SET. It’s a diverse pile of poop.

Make sure you go to the Website to see the most current content. There will be additional posts during the coming week. You’ll find an HTML-formated version of this newsletter (much prettier than this funky version that comes in the e-mail) as well as any newer posts.

Commentary

So, I have spent a lot of time thinking about death this week. Of course, there are the losses of so many lives to gun violence just recently (but for so, so, too long); that’s a downer. And there is the pending b’day of my older brother, who passed away almost 13 years ago.

I drove to Lyles cemetery Sunday and took this photo of an area where the remains of nine members of my family are buried. The burial site of my brother, William E. Lloyd, Jr., is marked by the stone at the middle right of the foreground.

I miss my big brother a lot. We had conflicts, to be sure. What siblings don’t have conflicts? Yet, he was a really smart and caring family guy. He died unexpectedly, apparently while napping on a Sunday afternoon.

That Bill died while napping, covered by a shawl his grandmother (her grave is just a couple of meters from his) had knitted for him is a comfort to me. I am very sorry that he had to die alone on that afternoon; I wish I could have been there to hold his hand.

Even given my grief, I am fortunate. Bill didn’t die because someone on what probably was a suicide mission burst into a classroom and used an semi-automatic weapon to slaughter children and teachers or walked into a neighborhood supermarket and butchered people. Those people didn’t die alone, peacefully. I wish their survivors solace. peace, and love.

My brother’s death helps me remember that I care about people close to me. The deaths of those teachers and children (and the many others slaughtered by gun violence) remind me that the USA! USA! USA! has lots of work to do to create a caring community. I want to teach that caring.

We need to teach 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 that put yourself and others at risk), and (please) teach our children well.

JohnL

SET Editor guy

Charlottesville

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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.