letters to my class

Dear Humans,

To know a small thing really well, you have to know about a lot of big things. Currently, we’re learning about the cave rescue of the youth soccer team in Thailand from three years back. From first entering the cave until the last boy was rescued took 18 days. That seems like something that would be pretty easy to understand.

But to really understand this specific event in this specific place in the world, we have to think about lots of big things. We have to think about the geography and history of Southeast Asia. We have to think about the geology of caves and the biology and psychology of humans. And we have to think about global communication and local culture. 

And, after all that, we’ll really only know we learned anything by the quality of the questions that we’re left with when we’re done.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Scientists,

You’re scientists because you’re alive in the world. You look around and you notice things. These things might confuse you more than they make sense to you. You might have some wrong ideas about how these things happen.

But that’s okay. Wrong ideas are better than no ideas. And some wrong ideas are better than other wrong ideas. Science–that body of ideas that we currently think is correct–is built with the discarded bones of wrong ideas.

The main thing is to keep looking, keep thinking, and keep coming up with ideas–even if they’re wrong. Because the world does not easily reveal itself and its truths. And it takes a lot of wrongs to get close to being right.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

I have this Pyrex measuring cup that I’ve used so much that I’ve worn the markings off the side. I still use it, though. And I just sort of imagine that the markings are still there.

Albert Einstein said it a long time ago and I’ve agreed with it many times before, but “imagination is more important than knowledge.” In fact, I’d say that imagination is the highest form of knowledge. Because when you know something well enough, you can see things that aren’t really there.

It’s like that new Ryan Reynolds movie where he puts on those special glasses and can see things that other people can’t. That’s what knowledge does: it shows you the hidden features of our world. But it’s more hard-won than just putting on a pair of Oakleys.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

Last night I went trick or treating with my daughters. While you’re trick or treating, you’re not totally sure what you’re getting from each house. It’s dark. Maybe you’re wearing a mask. And you’re in a hurry to get to the next house.

But then you get home and in a big, dramatic gesture, you dump your entire bag of candy out on your mother’s living room rug and you start the fun work of organizing. Reese’s over there, Hershey’s over here, and the Almond Joy’s in a pile for the old people. 

Life’s kind of like that. As you’re going through it, you’re not really sure all that you’re collecting in your bag. It gets jumbled and all mixed up. It’s only in the aftermath, after it’s done, that you’re able to see what you’ve got.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

My computer didn’t connect to our projector the other day. You probably noticed because I was muttering to myself. And then I became eerily calm, like adults do when they’re at their breaking point. And you were probably thinking, “Uh oh, the teacher’s lost it!” 

I tried lots of things to fix it. Disconnecting and reconnecting. Turning it off and back on again. Downloading a display adapter. But nothing worked.

So eventually I asked IT for help. And, wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I hit send on the email, the screen blinked on and we were back in business. 

Sometimes the world is just waiting for us to ask for help. To swallow a little of our pride and show that we can’t do it all by ourselves.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

If you step back and look at the things humans do, you might think they’re a little weird. In a few days you might put on a cape, slather fake blood on your chin, stuff pointy, plastic teeth in your mouth, ring your neighbors’ doorbells, and threaten them to give you candy. And they will hand it over with a smile on their face!

That seems pretty weird, doesn’t it?

But we’ve been doing it for so long that we think it’s normal. It’s tradition now. And our job as thinking people in the world is to ask why we do the things we do. How did things become the way they are? Not because we want to stop doing these strange things–candy’s great, after all–but to better understand how human beings make sense of this strange world we live in.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

I hate “finders keepers, losers weepers.” When I ask kids where they got something and they say, “I found it,” I remind them that that means it belongs to someone else and they should return it.

Because lost things are special. When a single Pokémon card is part of your collection, it’s just part of your collection. But once it’s lost, it becomes much more important. And you’ll drop everything to find it. And that means “finders” have the responsibility to return lost things to the “weepers”, even if it takes us extra time and effort.

“Finders keepers, losers weepers” teaches us that we can only gain things if other people lose them. But that’s not really how the world works. In truth, our best chance at gaining the things we want is when everyone else gains them as well.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Walkers,

My niece is beginning to learn to walk. She’s pulling herself up on things. She’s standing. Soon she’ll tottle. And then she’ll take a few steps. And then she’ll walk across the room. And, at a certain point, she’ll be considered a walker.

But you’re never really done learning to walk. Because after you learn to walk, you have to learn to tip-toe. Like how I’m supposed to tip-toe down the hallway when my family is still asleep. And then you have to learn to stroll, like you would arm-in-arm with a partner down a tree-lined boulevard when the weather is crisp and the leaves are crunching under your feet. And, if you’re lucky, at some point in your life you might just have to learn to strut.

And the hardest part is knowing when is the right time for the right kind of walking. The learning never stops. It just gets deeper.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

Yesterday my family went to the first of many trunk or treats we’ll attend this Halloween season. And, as always, I was amazed by the lengths people go to make their cars or trucks look festive. 

And they do it all just because they want to. We didn’t vote for a Best Trunk award and they were paid only in bags of candy. But still, there they were, spending hours in a parking lot handing out candy after spending hours and hundreds of dollars making the back of their Honda CRV look like a Tim Burton movie.

We sometimes think we need to give people prizes or competition to motivate them. But the truth is that people want to do well. And they want to do good. And if you give them the opportunity to do it, they will not disappoint you.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Writers,

Everybody has something to teach the world. We’ve all lived our lives in different places and with different people and with a different set of eyes, and that means each of us knows things that no one else knows. The world needs to learn about it. And the way we teach the world is through writing.

And nothing is too small. You don’t have to teach the world how to live a perfect life–those books tend to be boring. One of my all-time favorite books is called One Good Turn: The Natural History of the Screwdriver and Screw by Witold Rybczynski. It’s all about the screwdriver. And it’s absolutely fascinating!

So look around you and put your life and mind on the page. The world needs your expertise.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt