I’d be lying if I told you that this week has been a rough one, for multiple reasons. The sinus agony of growing ragweed numbers has done a number on everyone in my household, including the dog, and the heat hasn’t broken here just yet, even as we hit the first days of September.
Then, early Thursday morning, I got word that my high school band director, who taught me more about being a great educator than almost anyone else, had passed. He’d been in poor health since a debilitating stroke in 2021, but knowing that this day was coming didn’t make it any easier.
I’ve drawn comfort from the many memories and lessons I learned from him, and from seeing numerous others share their memories and lessons across social media. Chuck Smith was a great band director but an even greater person. His legacy ripples through time and space and will impact generations to come.
And yes, he really did tell us all the time that making a mistake was ok; just make it big enough (commit!) so we can see it and fix it. That’s true for just about every area of life, not just marching band.
Anyways, on with this week’s 10 things…
10 Things — September 3, 2026
TX: Alpha School and Voucher Grift — It’s Synergy! A Texas Tribune/ProPublica investigation gets the deep dive treatment: Alpha School couldn’t get charter approval in Texas, so it’s using the state’s much laxer voucher-vendor rules instead — no proof of educational outcomes required. The piece traces the tangled web of companies (2 Hour Learning, Trilogy, Crossover) that all funnel money back to founders MacKenzie and Andrew Price, and notes that Alpha’s leadership declined interview requests. Via Peter Greene’s Curmudgucation newsletter:
The Same Page, In Practice - A follow-up to Andrew Marcinek’s home-school screens/edtech framework, this one gets concrete — walking through each of five “touch points” with classroom examples (third grade and seventh grade), common failure modes, and the research behind each move, plus two fillable toolkits for staff and families. Practical, coach-usable material. Via Andrew Marcinek’s Think Forward newsletter:
10 Instructional Illusions - Peter Greene digs into Kirschner, Hendrick, and Heal’s book on the gap between what teachers believe helps learning and what actually does — starting with the “Engagement Illusion” (a room of nodding, smiling students doesn’t mean anyone’s learning) and the “Expertise Illusion” (too little expertise breeds overconfidence, too much makes you forget what novices need). Directly useful for coaching conversations. Via Curmudgucation:
Performing Poorly: Tennessee Students Receiving Vouchers 20+ Points Behind Public School Peers - Hard numbers on Tennessee’s voucher program: 17% of voucher students hit proficiency in math versus 43% of public school students; 24% versus 40% in English. The legislature responded by expanding the program to $300 million and dropping the standardized-testing requirement entirely. Via The Education Report:
Back to Colonialism - The eighth lecture in Timothy Snyder’s “Hitler and Stalin Today” series, tracing how the language and structure of empire shifted after each World War — and how the Cold War let the U.S. be read, reasonably, as a racial frontier empire by African-American thinkers and others who saw echoes of practices Hannah Arendt also wrote about. Dense but rewarding if you want the historical throughline. Via Timothy Snyder’s newsletter:
Why the Conversation About Reading Matters: A 59-minute podcast conversation with literacy consultant Jeffrey Austin, unpacking the current “reading wars” moment in education and referencing pieces like The Atlantic’s “The End of Reading Is Here.” Worth a listen if you’re thinking about how the reading conversation is landing in classrooms. Via The Broken Copier podcast:
Pluralistic: Preparing for a Post-Trump Internet - Cory Doctorow on what a healthier, less enshittified internet could look like once current political conditions shift — part warning, part practical roadmap. Via Cory Doctorow’s Pluralistic: https://pluralistic.net/2026/09/03/broken-arrows/
AI and Education (MIT Report) - A research-backed look at how AI is actually landing in classrooms and higher ed, cutting through some of the hype on both the booster and doomer sides. Relevant background reading for anyone fielding AI questions from teachers. Flagged via Stephen Downes’ OLDaily: http://www.downes.ca/post/79714/rd
OPINION: Knowing How to Use AI Tools Is Not the Same as Knowing How to Apply Them Responsibly - Ngoc Cindy Pham argues that AI literacy training in schools too often stops at “how to use the tool” without building the judgment needed to use it well — a distinction worth raising with staff. Via The Hechinger Report: https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-knowing-how-to-use-ai-tools-is-not-the-same-as-knowing-how-to-apply-them-responsibly-colleges-must-do-more/
The Creative Power of Uncertainty: Szymborska’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech - Maria Popova revisits Wisława Szymborska’s 1996 Nobel lecture on “I don’t know” as the engine of poetry and creative thought — a lovely, short reflection to close the week on. Via Maria Popova’s The Marginalian: https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/09/03/wislawa-szymborska-nobel-speech/
That’s it for this week, gang. Keep the ones you love close and tell them often you love them. I’ll be here doing my best to be a living legacy of the leader of the band.