letters to my class

Dear Learners,

You know when you learn a new word and then it seems like you see it all the time? Well, you’re probably seeing it just as often as you used to, but now you know enough to pay attention to it.

The world is vast and our attention is a weak, wan flashlight beam. We can only illuminate a sliver of the world at any one time. But knowledge helps.

Learning new things isn’t just about putting more stuff inside of our brain; learning is about making our flashlight beam brighter and wider. Then, more of the world is visible, knowable, and lit up.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Tinkerers,

It’s easy to look around the world and see its limitations. When I was growing up, I thought the future would be much more futuristic. I thought I’d be able to fly around in my own personal jetpack by now.

But if you think about it, human technological progress has been incredible. If Wilbur and Orville could see a space shuttle or a jumbo jet, I think they’d be amazed.

I believe that any problem can be solved. I believe that anything is possible. The solutions might not be what we imagined, but they still make the thing possible.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

Driving with my headlights on helps me see. But between streetlights, lights from buildings, and other people’s headlights, I could see well enough without them. The real benefit of headlights is that they let other drivers see me.

Rules are the same way. If we follow the rules, we will probably stay safe. But the rules exist for the protection of other people–people we might never see or know, but who benefit from our actions.

So don’t follow the rules because you want to stay out of trouble. And don’t follow the rules because you want to be a good person. Follow the rules because you know you’re making life better for someone, somewhere.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

Sometimes I don’t take out the garbage as soon as I should, and I tell my wife that I forgot. But I’ve never once in my entire life forgotten to take out the garbage. Garbage stinks. And garbage piles up. And garbage sits there in the corner and stares at you with its banana peel and coffee grounds eyes. It’s impossible to forget to take out the garbage.

The truth is I was lazy. The truth is I was doing something else. The truth is I got distracted by playing my guitar and, when I came back, the garbage had somehow grown and festered and stunk up the entire house. So I say I forgot. But what I mean is that I didn’t do it when I should have.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Students,

You can learn a lot from just looking around you if you know what to look for. We sometimes feel like we’re lacking, and we look for that “thing” to complete us. So we put the Amazon shopping app on our phones; so we’re quick to search out the “right” answer on Google; so we constantly glance at screens to capture our attention.

But I think what’s inside of us and around us is enough. The world around us is bountiful–full of life and wonder–if we only take the time to look. The world inside us is deep–full or memories and insight–if we only make ourselves explore it. And they are both freely available–no downloads, no logins, and no ads required.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

For me, spring arrives when I get my big, fat book that previews the upcoming baseball season. Stats for every player. Projections for the coming year. It has it all.

I look forward to it every year because it excites me for the upcoming baseball season; but, most of all, I look forward to it because it puts me in the middle of the conversation about baseball.

Life is about being part of various conversations–about politics, about your work, about your hobbies. That’s how humans figure things out. And your job is to make sure you are part of the conversation. Books help.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Students,

There’s a lot you can do to make the world a better place. But the best thing you can do is work together with others. If you take shorter showers, you’ll save some water. But if you convince hundreds or thousands of other people to do it, then you can save millions of gallons of water.

Individual actions are mostly about the kind of person you want to be. And that’s important. But when you organize people to do something, then you will start to create the kind of world you want to call home.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Students,

“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” Maybe your parents or grandparents have told you that. If not, now your teacher has. And it’s true. If you want something of value, you have to pay for it.

We live in a world now where many things seem free: YouTube videos, news, information. But they’re not. You pay for them with your time and attention. And a lot of time these “free” things aren’t worth much. They might be biased or misleading or just flat-out lies.

So remember, you get what you pay for. If you want something of value, expect to give something of value for it.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Writers,

More meaning comes through our tone of voice and body language than the words from our mouths. A scowl or a smile tells more than a thousand words. That’s what makes writing so difficult: we can’t put hand gestures, facial expressions, or the timbre of our voice on the page. It’s just the words.

But I believe there are things we can only say through writing. And writing allows us the time and space to think about what’s really important.

Great writers have great power: not just the means to influence people, but the ability to explore the ideas that soak into every part of the world.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Collectors,

Collectors are my kind of people. And my favorite collections are the weird ones: barbed wire, paper airplanes, barf bags. You can start a collection from anything, and it can be totally free. The most important part of a collection is how the collector organizes it, not the stuff itself.

The world’s first museums were nothing but glorified collections. Amateur scientists took the weird and wacky stuff from the natural world and put it into a room.

The world is a big, confusing place, full of lots of seemingly random stuff. Collectors make sense it by searching for related bits and pieces and giving them meaning.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck