Jan Cawthorne is executive director of special education in Mesa Public Schools, Arizona’s largest unified school district. Before participating in a panel on autism education, she explained why she studied Latin in school, why Catalina salad dressing captures her personality, and why she’s surprised to find herself in a doctoral program in the Zócalo green room.
What’s the last board game you played?
Probably Scrabble.
What was your worst subject in school?
Probably science. I tried to avoid it as much as I could, and actually I took Latin because I was a language person, so I got out of having to take physics, and I was really happy about that.
How do you react when you’re embarrassed?
I blush—I turn bright red. And then I get more embarrassed.
What dessert can’t you resist?
Banana cream pie.
What surprises you most about your life right now?
I’m in a doctoral program right now, and I had given up on that—I’m surprised that I actually went through with it and signed up and am doing it.
What’s hanging on your living room walls?
I have a couple paintings—most of them are Southwest paintings. One of them is actually an oil painting of a cover of Arizona Highways Magazine that my mother-in-law did when she took an art class about 20 years ago. And we’ve searched for the magazine, and we can’t find it, so we’re not quite sure what it was a picture of.
What do you do to unwind?
I have a garden, and I go for a walk in my garden.
What salad dressing best captures your personality?
Catalina. I think there’s a lot of different ingredients. It’s a little bit sweet but a little bit tangy.
Do you know any poems by heart?
Robert Frost probably—“The woods are lovely, dark and deep”—“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” When I went to school you had to memorize poems as part of the curriculum.
What do you wake up to?
Usually my iPad—I’m awake early in the morning, and my iPad is sitting by my bed. I usually wake myself up—I don’t have an alarm clock—grab that iPad and start to work, even before I’m out of bed. Usually it’s to write down some idea that I’ve just thought of as I was waking up.