Special Education Today newsletter 3(29)

Yes, it’s another Monday morning here in the eastern region of North America that I call “home,” so it’s time for the usual newsletter of Special Education Today. In this edition readers will find a little personal dribble, a table of contents covering the posts from the previous week, a few notes about the status of SET, and a brief commentary about this holiday day.

As readers may recall, I posted photos of the flooding in nearby Fluvanna county last week. I ratted about in my files for some older photos that I thought might help set the context for the recent images. I found some from September 2003. I took them a few days (almost a week) after Hurricane Isabel passed through our region. The flooding was much worse elsewhere and earlier, as reported in the Wikipedia article about it, but there was a lot of rain in the mountains near us (within a few miles of the place where I go to count migrating hawks; see this post for an view of that general neighborhood).

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The first photo is an ill-composed image of the name plate on the north-eastern side of the mill that I showed under flood in the post on Friday 12 January 2024.

This second photo also shows Solitude Mill in the flooding following the passage of Isabel in 2003. The photo was take 25 September, so the flood waters from Isabel had mostly receded. There is still water from flooded Cunningham Creek at the bottom left of the photo and, I think, that one can see a line (darker vs. lighter) on the brick siding (maybe 15 feet up from the water) in the top right quarter of the image.

Readers who compare this second photo with the one of the mill from last week’s flooding will notice that the mill lost a lot of itself in the 20 years between the two photos. The entire downstream side that is visible in the older image shown here is not apparent in the image from Wednesday 10 January 2024.

The last time I was physically inside the mill was probably in the 1990s. At that time, my brother Bill and I climbed stairs to the top floor and walked about the structure quite safely (though both of us elected not to jump from the 3rd floor windows to the ground). The mill house was pretty sound then, but now its bricks and timbers are just becoming buried treasures for archeologists many years in the future. While we explored, we also examined the dated high-water marks kept by our ancestors on the inside wall of the up-stream side of the mill; my memory is vague, but I think the highest one was from the 1930s—and that didn’t include the catastrophic flooding of 1969 from Hurricane Camille.

I think about historic events often. I wonder what it must have been like for kids with disabilities and their families during huge storms that might arrive with little warning. I suspect that those families watched out for all their children, and I hope that they taught their children how to prepare for—and what to do during—storms.

Please remember that readers can always keep up with the latest posts by going to the home page for Special Education Today. Even if I don’t send a post to subscribers by e-mail, I post them all on the Web site. Oh! And I encourage readers to get the Substack app for their portable devices so that all their Substack subscriptions can be readily at hand (haha) in one place with quick access to posts.

SET seems to be stuck in the mid-600s for subscriptions. The graph is just going sideways…at least it’s not going down!

Meanwhile, welcome to Halle R. and Olivia B. I hope y’all find lots of worthwhile content and tell friends and colleagues about everything you like about SET.

I’m sad to report that my much-admired colleague and long-time friend, Anita A., wrote to me this past week to explain that she wanted to drop a comment on the motivation post but was thwarted. She had great ideas and words to post, but the interface didn’t permit her to do so. Ugh! I wish she had been able to post her comments, as I suspect many readers would’ve liked to read them. Because I couldn’t determine what went wrong, I’m seeking assistance from the Big Dogs at Substack. If any of you paid subscribers have experienced problems, please let me and Substack (support@substack.com) know.

Speaking of paid subscribers, let me tip my cap to just a few of you: Adelaide D., Amelia M., Christine T., MBH, Michele M., Sally B., and all the others whom I don’t think I know IRL, but whose subs I greatly appreciate. Oh, and to Li-Yu H. and Mike G. who know why I appreciate their subs.

Amid all this talk about heritage, I want to note that , here in the US Monday 15 January 2024 is an official day of remembrance about Dr. Matin Luther King, Jr. Although I don’t share his religious bones, I admire Reverend Dr. King greatly. I think he rightly fits as a hero in the sense described by Heather Cox Richardson in her post of 14 January 2004.

Among his many accomplishments that I find admirable are his oratorical skills, his ability to bring people together, and his persistence in pursuing goals. But those are facilitating skills. It was the concepts that he used those skills to promote that really matter. He championed non-violence, equity, and justice. He explained his insights by showing the influence of collateral factors (poverty, war) that strengthened the undertow pulling people away from human kindness. He persisted in advocating love and peace in the face of unfounded accusations, ill-conceived and -promulgated legal actions, and threats of physical harm.

Among the many lessons I take away from Dr. King’s efforts to bend American (and human) society toward peace and justice is that special education should be available and effective for children and their families regardless of the color of their skin, the ethnic background of their parents, and the wealth that their families can bring to to school; that special educators should predicate their practice on evidence of effectiveness, eschew practices that are appealing because they are new and popular, and create environments in which children with disabilities have the best verified chances for life-long success; that we should persist in employing loving and peaceful efforts to collaborate with each other in securing our children’s futures, regardless of whether they have disabilities.

I could go on…but, meanwhile, please remember to wear your seatbelts, keep safe social distances, and use face masks. And, as ought to go without saying, remember to teach your children well.

Happy MLK Day!

JohnL

John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D., UVA Professor Emeritus, Founder & Editor, https://www.SpecialEducationToday.com/

p.s., Once you’ve subscribed to SET, please consider donating some time (or even $$!) to efforts to promote peace, equity, justice, and effective special education. There are plenty of worthy non-profits; I’m sure you can find them.