From Nation's Capital to Nation's Capital: The Azza Street Spy

A Glimpse at the Public Sector
One of the things that I simultaneously miss and don't miss about working in public schools is the interaction with the public. There are so many children, parents, teachers, and staff who are so totally wacky, and literally anyone can walk into your life when you work in public schools. Interacting with these characters regularly makes one's cocktail party stories (or Kiddush conversations) more colorful, but they can also wear one out. Hence, my ambivalence re: no longer working in that environment.

Working full-time at a research firm is a much more sterile environment. We don't have the crises or insanity of a school, but we also don't have the same fun.

Our research team is currently conducting two projects, and we are recruiting parents to participate in telephone interviews. (If any of you Israel-dwelling readers out there have an elementary-school aged child who is included in the regular classroom or have a child between ages 3 and 12 (i.e., 6th grade) who learns in special education and does not get a long school day, drop me a line!) At this point, between the 1,000s of letters distributed with my number and the listservs where I posted, I've gotten a few interesting replies.

Not unexpectedly, parents call me and want to start pouring their hearts out re: their child's lack of service. This is to be expected. While the research is fairly technical in nature, it's not technical when parents think their child is not being well-served. However, as a researcher I don't actually make placements or provide direct services.

A sample of the more interesting replies:

**A father called me wanting to talk to an expert on inclusion and special education. His son is in the 4th grade and they are no longer certain that he should continue with inclusion next school year. Yesterday he met with the school principal, school psychologist, and other specialists and he wanted an outside opinion re: service options available to his son. His wife was interviewed this week, our letter is laying around their house, of course he is going to call the PhD researcher of inclusion. Who would be an expert in the area, if not me? An unusual request, but not unreasonable. (Outcome: we spoke for a bit, and he claimed at the end of the conversation to be satisfied with the advice that I offered.)

**A woman answered my janglo (i.e., Craig's list) post with the name of a friend. I replied, thanking her for the lead; she replied, asking me if I could suggest work and/or a gentleman suitor. Attached were her CV and photograph. I replied in the negative.

Ahhh, this reminded me of how I do miss the variety and insanity of public service delivery. But, I also relish the quiet orderliness of an air-conditioned and well-heated (in the right seasons) office. I think maybe office work coupled with parent recruitment is a good combination for me.

Shabbat shalom!

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