letters to my class

Dear Humans,

I have a poster of the Timeline of Human History. It includes all the empires and dynasties throughout human civilization. Stretching all the way back to the first days of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent to the rockets launching from Cape Canaveral. 

And it’s just a series of lines. Some are longer than others. Some are fatter. But all of those lines either stop or merge into a different line.

When you’re in one of those lines, you think it’s the most important line. The one that all the other lines have been leading up to. But it’s not. It’s just another line. And the people in it are just more people—oblivious to the line that future historians will draw around our lives.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Habit Breakers,

I’ve been a fingernail biter my whole life. But I’ve recently tried to stop. Because people can change.

But it’s not easy. Because I am really good at biting my nails. I can get them exactly how I want with my mastication manicure. 

And clipping my nails is a lot more challenging. First off, I can never find the clippers. And then I struggle to clip my dominant hand with my non-dominant. It takes practice. 

And that’s the truth about habits. We can’t really break them. We can only replace them with others. And it’s hard to replace something you’re good at with something you’re not. You can only do it one day at a time.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

Today at 12:22, our phone box will go crazy. The government is sending an emergency alert system. It is a test; it is only a test. But you all have been in a tizzy about this event. I blame the TikTok machine. 

The powerful technologies in our pockets are possible because they’re connected. That’s really what science is—humans connecting in organized ways to share information and debate ideas. And because of it, we’re more tightly connected than ever.

But humans are tribal creatures, tied to specific places. And our technologies and connections make us feel strange. So we make up spectacular stories to make us feel better. But it’s important to remember that these stories are just stories. 

And yes, we’ll still have school tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Thinkers,

I think great thoughts in the shower. Big, earth shaking and insightful thoughts. I’ve never lost an argument in the shower because my ideas are so good.

And then you dry off and go into the real world with your shower thoughts and they are quickly challenged, debunked, and proved much weaker than we thought. Because other people have their own shower thoughts, too. And they do battle against our own.

Our purpose as humans should be to have good ideas about the world. Ideas that reflect truth and beauty. And the only way to make our ideas better is to have them challenged by other people’s ideas. To step out of the shower and put our ideas into the world.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Readers,

I think I learn more from fiction than from non-fiction. I’ve read a lot of nonfiction books about World War II, but I think I’ve learned more about the war from novels like Catch-22, Slaughterhouse Five, and From Here to Eternity.

Because fiction makes us feel like we’re there. It asks us to exercise our empathy muscles and pays us back with a riveting story. It is important to know when fiction authors take liberties or smudge some facts. And we should understand that fiction and nonfiction have different purposes.

But our goal as humans is to better understand the world around us. And our best way of doing that is not simply gathering facts about it, but imagining ourselves moving about it.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Tinkerers,

In school we usually ask you to only use the front part of your brain and the parts of your hands that grasp a pencil or tap keys. 

But on Fridays we tinker. Which means we take garbage and try to turn it into a machine that does something—cars that move, rockets that zoom, machines that scribble. And to do that (or even to fail spectacularly and creatively), you’ve got to use your whole selves. And most of all, you’ve got to be persistent.

In the real world you have to communicate clearly, problem solve logically, and collaborate with fellow citizens. But most of what you do everyday is try to get things to work. And persistence is often better than knowledge.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Readers,

I say to you all the time, “The answer is in the text.” Usually I’m talking about those comprehension questions that come at the end of a reading passage, but I mean it much more broadly.

Because as 21st century humans, we see the world as text. Our own experiences come alive when we render them as texts—stories we tell or memories we cherish. Scientists observe the world and record it as texts—charts, graphs—so it can be shared and understood. 

But our world of texts must be pored over and decoded and discussed and debated. Deeply and repeatedly. Because that’s where all the answers lie.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

The other day I told you that it wasn’t very likely a stranger would kidnap you, and you thought I was crazy. You have learned the stranger danger lessons well, and it is good to be careful and take proper precautions. 

Because it is true that random bad things do happen to people. And we should be prepared for them. 

But most of the trouble we get into in this world is of our own making. It will probably be the friends you choose to hang out with that cause you problems, not strangers you run into. The stuff you freely choose to put into your body that does the most harm.

Life is mostly the result of our choices, for good and bad.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Learners,

Sometimes I’ll cook something from a recipe. And usually it turns out okay. But I never really learn anything when I cook from a recipe. I don’t feel like a chef. It’s just one step after another.

But when I try to make something up. When I think about the ingredients and how they go together. And when I really screw it up. (And then choke it down anyways.) That’s when I learn a lot about food and cooking. 

You can learn some things in a step-by-step process. And you might even get the right answer. But true learning—the kind that changes who we are—comes in starts and fits. And lots and lots of failure.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Political Animals,

We’ve been reading about corn production in the United States. But really, we’ve been learning about resources and how we decide which ones to develop. And it’s a nice thing that you’ve started doing this in 5th grade, because it’s something that you’ll do for the rest of your life.

Harold Laswell says that politics is deciding “who gets what, when, and how.” We like to play political games and gussy it up in pageantry, but the heart of the matter is divvying up resources. 

And there is no way it’s “supposed” to be. It’s all up to us—we the people—to decide. And if you’re not involved in the messy process of making those decisions, they get made for you.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt