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Liz King, Elizabeth Hartung, Jesse Elliott, Jacquelyn Kilpatrick, William Cordeiro, and Joan Karp. I thank Kaia Tollefson, Betsy Quintero, and Eric Toshalis for the many reflective conversations we had about the state of public education. All these friendships kept me going.
I thank my sister Leena and her family of Heikki, Selma, Akseli, and Sanni for taking me sledding, snow castle building, fishing, and swimming in Finland, and for the many laughs we had. Finally, I owe a very, very special thanks to my beloved parents—to whom this book is dedicated—for all their support over the years, their care packages of Finnish chocolate and coffee, newspaper clippings from Helsingin Sanomat, and most of all, for teaching me the desire for life long education.
Last but not least, I want to thank all the students with disabilities whom I have had the incredible privilege to know. Without these individuals I would not have made the United States my home and special education my passion and profession.