Spotlight on an amazing accomplishment.

I want to take today to celebrate my sister the doctor (of education).

Yesterday my sister, Juliana Nichols-Hazlett successfully defended her doctoral dissertation. My family, her husband, friends and colleagues all watched remotely as she presented the methodology of her research on the professional development of special education instructors, her findings, and her excellent ideas on how to improve things for the teachers and students of special education.

As you can see, the title really rolls off of the tongue.

Like most of my family, she has a ton of charisma; just sitting at a table in her apartment, presenting and illuminating her PowerPoint presentation she held the audience (I suppose I can only speak for myself) rapt for the entire hour. That she was able to so masterfully speak on a subject that most of us have only a casual interest in, and keep our attentions while we’re all watching on a sometimes sketchy video feed hunkered down in our various Coronavirus-Hausbunker is so impressive.

All of those beans and pasta seemed like such a good idea at the time.

It was a real joy to see the gifted educator that she is firsthand. She spoke with such passion, clarity, and sincerity, but leavened it all with enough humour and charm to keep us all engaged. Having proofread a large portion of her dissertation last month, I knew the material pretty well, but I learned so much more from having it demonstrated in a live(ish) setting. I am very proud of my sister and all that she has accomplished and will continue to accomplish in her educational career.

I still crush her head.

One of the unexpected findings in my sister’s study was how diminished special education teachers saw themselves. They feel as though other teachers are considered experts, while they are ‘just special ed’. How disheartening and demoralizing that must feel. That the teachers who have among the most difficult workloads in all of education are considered ‘less than’ by the system they work in says everything about how our values must change, and how someone like my sister will change them.

There is a meme going around Facebook about how all the unskilled labor suddenly became essential when Coronavirus appeared. I hope that it makes everyone realize that they always were. The highly educated special ed teachers and the (presumably) less educated grocery store employees and restaurant workers are both highly essential, and we need to not forget that when this crisis passes.

Death to Capital.

I have more to say about my sister’s dissertation tomorrow, but for now, please give a cheer for my sister, Doctor Juliana Nichols-Hazlett EdD!

This newsletter is still very much about challenges and goals of Jeremy D. Nichols, but thank you for allowing me to take a couple of posts to talk about a very important hero of mine. I love you, Sister.

CHALLENGE UPDATE

I have switched the guitar program I am using. I was getting very bored with my other program (not a bad program, I’m just an ADD kid) and a friend let me use his login while he recuperates from slicing off part of his finger with one of his beautiful, but wickedly sharp knives. I will use it for a couple of weeks and let y’all know how it’s going.

Join the Discord server while we’re all a bunch of shut-ins.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

Drop me a line: jeremydnichols@gmail.com

Follow me on Twitter: @jeremydnichols

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