Black families and White families are affected by autism in different ways. Little scholarship acknowledges these differences, especially those communicated by Black fathers of students with autism. In this article, I share an evocative autoethnography which highlights how my cultural, familial, and occupational identities intersect and confound…

The author founded Greater Newark Charter School in 2000 at a time when charter schools were little more than a nuisance to the traditional public school establishment. Just two years earlier, when first learning about charter schools, he recalls questioning the necessity for "new" schools when so many operational public schools were in…

This article describes 40 years of interactive friendship and work between William Demmert, Jr. and Rosemary Christensen, who met during the First Convocation of American Indian Scholars in March 1970 at Princeton University and then in the fall of that same year as they both arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts as graduate students in the first…

In this article the author describes his first winter in Elizabeth, New Jersey with his family in 1972. His family included: his mother Margarita; his aunts Dinorah and Nereyda; the family matriarch, his grandmother Maria Otilia Anreus; and himself, an underweight and scrawny twelve-year-old named after the infamous anarchist, Alexander Berkman.…

Transportation challenges can often be one of the biggest stumbling blocks to having a successful vocational experience. The author presents a personal account of the difficulties people with disabilities encounter in trying to get themselves to their workplaces due to the limitations of various mobility services.

When children create dances using their ideas, they are empowered to explore their thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Through dance, they bring their inner self to the surface where they can express their dreams, fears, needs, and joys. Dance educators need to support children's ideas and trust the children's creative process, especially when…

If one asks any family, or a group of families, to share their experience with religious communities or to talk about the impact of their child on their spirituality, the answers one gets are rarely lukewarm. If the trust is there, stories emerge about how incredibly important their faith or faith community has been, on the one hand, or perhaps…

In this article, the author relates how his friends do not understand the type of work that he does as a poetry teacher. His friends know him as someone who cheers on the Yankees voraciously with them and will roll his sleeves up and stuff three knockwurst sandwiches down his throat, trying to explain how Walt Whitman would approve of this, that…

Many teachers, fueled by their passion, classroom experience, and entrepreneurial verve, decide to start their own schools. With the needs of children driving their every decision, teachers can create successful schools where students thrive. In this article, teachers who established their own schools--from public charters to private…

In this article, the authors share their experiences as librarians, and offer their perspectives on issues critical to the new academic librarian. When the authors sat down to sort through ideas for this article, it became apparent that while their backgrounds, coursework, and experiences differed considerably, their passions and concerns are more…

In Greenwich now for 3 years, Larry Leverett is making the transition from a career in urban schools to educational leadership in a suburban environment. This chapter describes his recruitment to the position, his personal struggle about leaving urban for suburban education, his adaptation to Greenwich, and the surprises, controversies, and…