Gerald Bracey’s passing

Most of the education community is just learning that Kappan columnist Jerry Bracey died in his sleep Oct. 20 at his home in Port Townsend, Washington.

The tributes are pouring in, something that would probably surprise Jerry who seemed to thrive by irking the field, not delighting it.

Jerry Bracey was not a reporter in the traditional ink-stained wretch sense of the word. But he certainly possessed a reporter’s mentality about how to approach his work. I always thought that he exemplified the vision that Thomas Jefferson laid out for newspapers and their employees: “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Jerry surely took heed of that counsel.

I’ll write more about Jerry when more information is available. For now, I offer this sweet tribute that Alfie Kohn posted on his Twitter page: “Spirited crusader for accuracy, integrity; denounced false claims, misuse of stats; made the right enemies.”