I spent some time this weekend finishing the first complete draft of a talk I’m giving in Seattle on Thursday. I’m going to be heading there while a few thousand historians are leaving Seattle after the end of the Organization of American Historians meeting. I’m either expecting to find a time machine or I am heading there for a different meeting (Council for Exceptional Children). Last time I was in Seattle, it was wetter and colder than what’s forecasted for the middle of this week. We had a drenching rain in Tampa this morning, so things will even out in my personal experience this week, even if not for the world.
I hope my neighbors weren’t paying close attention while I was timing the draft. I don’t read papers word-for-word, but I wanted to get a sense of how far I’m off on time, so I read it aloud while alternating between the laundry room and the kitchen.
Oh, the topic? Accountability and students with disabilities. I think I know how I’m ending the hour, but the cliffhanger before the third set of commercials is the tough part right now, and I haven’t yet decided if Jason’s going to live. If he does, I’m going to have to tear up the last act and start fresh. I’ve given a spoiler, haven’t I?
More seriously, this talk is giving me the opportunity and prod to think through some connections between areas of education politics that I mentally put on “percolate”: the democratic rationale for public education, tensions between public and private purposes of schooling, and what technocratic mechanisms may be useful for (and in what circumstances). When I get back, I have to think about potential outlets and how to get a potential coauthor to give up enough time to participate (and the value involved in that).
The only serious performance question I have is the extent of corny jokes and how far I can/should push them.
- An RTI Tier 2 intervention plan and a Writ of Mandamus walk into a bar…
- Peter Singer dies and finds himself at the Pearly Gates facing St. Peter: “So your most important goal right now is to avoid pain?” St. Peter begins…
- How many IEP team members does it take to screw in a lightbulb?…
- A rabbi, a minister, and a psychometrist are in a rowboat in the middle of the lake…
Maybe not those jokes.