Might As Well Be Here Now

My grandfather, A.W. Brent, was a good man. He also was a very stern person with a low tolerance for unresolved conflict. He kept a hatchet in the trunk of his car which he occasionally used  to settle traffic disputes. According to family lore A. W. Brent's mother, Mary, was the daughter of a Cherokee Indian. I was looking at the picture of my grandfather this morning and wondering how he would react if Donald Trump (or anyone else) tried to ridicule his mother by calling her "Pocahontas."

About forty years ago I taught at the Heywood Environmental School in Louisville. Heywood was an innovative special education option within the Jefferson County school system. The school was called "Environmental" because all the staff were expected to maintain a positive environment for the students. We were all trained in a specific behavioral model in special education. Maintaining a positive environment was a pretty high bar because all of our students had histories of serious behavioral disorders. Teaching at Heywood was hard work. I could only do it for three years. But it was an extremely valuable and formative experience. I learned a lot from the Heywood students and applied those lessons many times over of the course of my career. My favorite student at Heywood was named Lennie. I got to know Lennie very well. I also got to know Lennie's mom and his younger brother, Jeffery. In my classroom Lennie was always a model student. He sometimes looked a little int...