letters to my class

Dear Individuals,

There’s a lot in life that we can’t control. Where we’re born, who we’re born to, who is in our class. Even the big life choices you’ll make–who you fall in love with, how you earn your living, and where you live–are largely determined by circumstances out of your control.

Small events build on each other in ways we never can foresee and we end up in places we never could have imagined.

But you make a life by responding to those circumstances with wisdom and grace. And if you get really good at that, you’ll know you’re always in exactly the right place.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Geometers,

Mathematicians spend a lot of type thinking about how things are related. The diameter and circumference of a circle, for instance. Nature seems to be really interested in how things are related as well, because we see these patterns and relationships over and over. 

There’s just something about math. It seems to be almost the language that nature speaks. If not that, math is probably the best tool for understanding the universe. That might be a bold claim, but I think it’s true.

So next time you complain about the utility of learning math skills, just remember that you’re learning to speak nature’s language.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Timekeepers,

Did you turn your clocks ahead yesterday morning? It was a bit darker on your way to school this morning, but you’ll get an extra hour of playtime this evening.

What I find amazing is how all Americans (except Arizonans and Hawaiians) remembered to do something as silly as turning their clocks ahead one hour. That all humans across the globe have agreed to a standard time and follow it to the second seems even more incredible. We take that for granted now, but just a few hundred years ago the idea of a worldwide time would have been inconceivable. Now we can instaneously communicate across the world. It’s really incredible. 

I can’t wait to see what new and inconceivable ideas you’ll come up with in the future.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Future,

What’s true now won’t always be true. It used to be “true” that Earth was the center of the Universe. It used to be “true” that Earth was flat. But time changes minds and changed minds change the world.

Many of the jobs you’ll have don’t even exist yet. So don’t worry too much about preparing yourselves with practical skills. And don’t worry too much about having the right answers. The future tends to leave behind yesterday’s right answers.

But the future will never forget today’s big ideas and meaningful explanations. Worry yourself with those.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Moonwatchers,

Teachers often complain about their students when there’s a full moon. People have long thought that the moon (Luna in Spanish) could turn people into lunatics. They thought that since the brain is mostly made of water, the moon’s gravity could pull on it just as it does the tides.

We now know that’s not true. But humans are undoubtedly influenced by the moon. It’s like a giant clock in the sky that we live our lives by. And it’s always fascinated humans. What’s there? What’s it made of? How was it formed? What can we do with it? It’s no surprise that the moon landing in 1969 was one of the biggest events of the 20th century. 

We’ll continue to study the moon today, but let’s keep the lunacy to a minimum.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Writers,

Good writers come from every country and background, good writers come from every language, and good writers come from every genre of writing. There are many, many ways to be a good writer. But I think there are quite a few things that all good writers do and probably the first one is this: Good writers are specific.

The world is so big and there’s such a mind-blowing amount of experience. To turn that into meaningful shapes on a page seems like it’s nearly impossible. The only way you’ll ever get through to your reader is if you put specific images into their minds. If you do that, then they’ll begin to recognize their world and see themselves in the words you are writing. And that’s something special.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Breaker Downers,

When humans figured out they could use electricity to instantaneously communicate across the country, they had to figure out a code to use. First they tried to use dots and dashes to represent common phrases. Then they tried to use dots and dashes to represent words. Finally, Samuel Morse figured out that they had to break the code all the way down to letters.

By themselves, letters don’t mean anything. They only have meaning because of how we combine them. But there are infinite ways to combine them, and we can turn those meaningless parts into a meaningful whole.

So if you’re ever stuck with a sticky problem, try breaking it down into tiny pieces. That method has been serving humanity well for years.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Space Travelers,

The world of our individual lives is so small. We’re so far from the heavens and it’s been so long since the beginning. If it were only up to out weak human senses, we probably wouldn’t think there’s much out there at all.

But luckily we have our powerful human minds. Most of the universe is too small or too big for us to directly observe, so we have to use our imaginations to create images and models that we can understand.

Knowledge, observation, and data are all important to science. But imagination is more important than them all.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

Each of you is the best at something. It might be estimating angle measure, or writing poems, or taking care of your younger siblings, or turning your eyelids inside out, but everyone has a singular talent that makes them special. 

The world is a big place with lots of needs. And it needs the talent you have and it needs you to be the best you can possibly be at it. That means practice, practice, practice and share, share, share.

Don’t take yourself too seriously, but do take your talent seriously, turning it into something that makes the world a better, more joyful place to live.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Readers,

They say that truth is stranger than fiction. And that’s undoubtedly true. But maybe by reading fiction we can prepare ourselves for good living in this strange reality. Or maybe fiction can offer us a model to better understand our strange reality. Or maybe fiction just offers us an escape from it.

Regardless of its uses, good fiction is just pure fun to read. Today we’ll read a short story that will transport us to a frozen world, make us feel the pangs of conscience, and throw us for a twist at the end.

There are millions of stories waiting to be read. And even more to be written.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck