But what is lost when we prioritize reading literacy over human connection?
Literacy. We use the word to mean the ability to parse text, but it’s not that simple. Roughly 87% of the world’s population can read. Almost a third of those people read in a language that they don’t speak at home. In becoming literate, in the text-parsing sense, many people enter a world that does…
Neurodivergent dad, CEO of Meta Corporation
by Ryk GroetchenNeurodivergent dad of neurodivergent childrenFacilitator of musical experiences for families with young children Dear Mr. Zuckerberg, I have been a user of your platform since soon after it was released to the public in the mid-2000s. I’m older than you: you were born the year I should have graduated from high school. As…
Navigating changing conditions in the nurturing professions
Vocational awe: “the set of ideas, values, and assumptions librarians have about themselves and the profession that result in beliefs that libraries as institutions are inherently good and sacred, and therefore beyond critique.” “graduates overwhelmingly pointed to underemployment issues as a source of unhappiness, including low wages; lack of benefits; having to settle for part-time,…
I’ve read things literally my whole life. Hold up. Let me rephrase that. Actually, let me point out how that is a perfect opening statement for this piece I’m trying to write about life as a literalist. Everything is wrong with this sentence, if I pick it apart. Not literally everything, though the case could…
Who is Jane Doe, and how do we provide her with justice?
The reason an institution like Cornell chooses to handle a case like Jane Doe vs the Cornell 7 internally has nothing to do with fairness, or protecting boys’ reputations, or even protecting the reputation of the institution. The reason is that institutions like Cornell are specifically designed to manufacture injustice, while obscuring that motive from…
How do we talk about repair, and who’s capable, in 500 characters?
“All autistic people can learn to be accountable for their actions, and to say otherwise is infantalizing and ableist.” Many variations on this theme are making their way through the platforms currently. While on the surface it appears well-meaning and affirming, it’s worth stepping back and considering the claim at face value, and how it…
all of the reasons to hate ai and to love ai are valid, to a point. it does things for us that are helpful to have done for us. it does things to us that are harmful to have done to us. the main thing we should focus on is what it requires of us.…
How Making Sense of My Child's Cannabis Use Helped Me Understand The Beauty of Human Adaptation
Does Domestication of the Human Species Really Represent Our Shared Future on the Planet? My almost-adult child is a gifted and challenged person, navigating the transition to adulthood in post-industrial American society. They’re a systems thinker, who aces every test, and who also can’t sit still or conform to the demands of a quiet workplace…
i passed 3 tween girls doing a coordinated dance for tiktok on a walk recognition: that’s me. memory: when i was a kid, i wanted to play jump rope and hand-clapping games with the girls, instead of kickball and four-square. the boys were always trying to win, and would spike the ball; girls were smiling…
Saying that autistic people who question the current paradigm of neurodivergence are seeking proof of a superpower does real harm. Diagnostic criteria are a snapshot. To refer to the snapshot as reality, without considering the hand that crafted the lens it was taken with, and for whose benefit, or what it distorts, cannot be seen…