letters to my class

Dear Humans,

I think I prefer children to adults because you guys have less experience to draw upon. Don’t get me wrong, experience is great. But often times adults (me too!) use our slivers of experience to make assumptions about the rest of the big wide world.

I had bad Chicken Tikka Masala one time, so all food from an entire subcontinent is terrible. My car was making a funny sound one time and it was the timing belt, so the problem with your car is most definitely the timing belt.

Experience can be a great teacher–as long as it doesn’t harden into prejudice. We are one out of seven billion, and the world is much bigger than our narrow experience of it.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

I think I like math so much because it lets me be lazy and find shortcuts. You might think math is just furrowing your brow, following steps and ending up with a right answer and a hand cramp. Because, unfortunately, that’s often how we teach math.

But math is about making sense of a problem. If you learn how to do that, then you start to find all sorts of “shortcuts” and other ways of solving a problem.

And the dirty little secret is that looking for and discovering “shortcuts” is actually a lot more work than just following someone else’s rules. But it’s creative work, and it’s fun work, and it’s the kind of work that will reveal something magical about the world.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

Working and schooling from home is hard! There are so many distractions. It’s as true for your parents and teachers as it is for you.

One of my daughters can only read with a cat on her lap. So she spends 10 minutes corralling the cat. Within two pages, the cat escapes and she has to chase it down again.

My other daughter is distracted by her own imagination. She’s hard at work on a math page and all of a sudden…the floor turns to lava and she must cross the room without touching it. And the math page just sits there.

It requires discipline. Set yourself a schedule and do as much as you can during that time. And once the time is done–even if not everything is completely finished–give in to the distractions.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

Before snow covered them, I’d look out my back window and admire my neighbors’ tulips. When my neighbors planted them, I don’t think they did it for me. Maybe a part of them wanted their yard to look nice for their neighbors, but I think they mostly did it for themselves.

But the funny thing is that I might enjoy those tulips more than my neighbors do. Because when I look at them, I just get to enjoy them. When they look at them, they worry about the bunnies eating them or the frost getting them.

Even when we do things for ourselves, the rest of the world is watching. And, if we do things well, the world is admiring.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

I ate a few chocolate bunnies this weekend. I prefer the hollow ones. I’ve heard people complain about biting the ear off a chocolate bunny and finding it hollow. But I’ve learned to appreciate the hollow bunny for what it is.

Sweetness comes best in small doses. All that chocolate in a solid hunk is just too much. No, give me that thin chocolate shell that breaks into those small perfect pieces. Plus, I quickly finish the hollow bunnies and don’t have to leave drooled upon chocolate laying around the house.

To really appreciate something, accept it for what it is. Find its strengths and don’t get lost wishing it was something it’s not. Appreciating people works exactly the same way.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

My hands have been really dry and chapped from all the hand washing. Lotion doesn’t help. But white petroleum jelly–Vaseline–is a miracle cure.

The problem, however, is once I slather Vaseline on my hands, I can’t do anything! I can’t scroll on my phone, turn the pages in my book, or write in my notebook. I’m stuck.

And it’s interesting how Vaseline works. It doesn’t do anything itself; it just creates a barrier that keeps all of the moisture from my hands on my hands. Then my hands heal themselves.

It feels a bit like our lives are covered with Vaseline right now. We can’t do much. We’re stuck and feel out of sorts. But maybe we can do a bit of self-healing during this time.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

Yesterday my daughter spent HOURS building a LEGO house. I probably should have made her do more schoolwork, but as a parent you learn that when your child is doing something quiet, safe, and semi-productive, you just let them be.

But then at suppertime she busted up the house she had been working on all day and threw the blocks back in the bucket without thinking twice.

And I saw that as such good practice for living. Because throughout your life you’re going to spend a lot of time building things that will wash away or be torn down. And all you’re left with the next day is what you learned in the building.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

Have you been howling at the moon at 8pm each night? It’s a thing now. I’m sure you’ve heard it. And I know my daughters have started looking forward to it every night.

Perhaps it will continue so long that some day you’ll have to explain to your children why people howl from their porches at 8pm every night. And you’ll start explaining about the pandemic and stay-at-home orders, and they’ll look at you like you’re crazy.

But that’s how history happens. We keep doing things even after the reason for doing them has stopped. And sometimes we keep doing them so long that we can’t even remember the reason we did them in the first place.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

Recently a friend gave us a mug she made, and I use it every day to measure my coffee beans. I could use any mug, but this one’s special because every morning it makes me think of my friend.

Before I was stuck in my house all the time, I hadn’t noticed all the other gifts people have given me. They’re everywhere. And each one reminds me of someone I haven’t seen in a while. They prod my imagination and empathy.

When life goes back to some sort of normal, I think I’ll appreciate gifts more. I’ll see them not just as something you use (or stash away in a closet or re-gift) but as a way to connect to those I can’t be with.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

I always have one or two overripe bananas on my kitchen counter. And before all of this, I’d often just throw them in the trash. Because I knew I could go buy another bunch at the store.

But now I hold on to those overripe bananas like gold. I use them to make banana bread. I freeze them for smoothies. I treat them with the respect they deserve.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve felt like an overripe banana sitting on a kitchen counter quite a bit over the past few weeks. But I’m lucky to have people around me who see my future in a loaf of banana bread, not the garbage. Let’s see that in one another as well.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck