letters to my class

Dear Dwellers in the World of Ideas,

You’ve never been to the rainforest, but through reading about it and studying it you can experience it in a way that’s just as rich. In fact, maybe it’s better.

If you were to go to the rain forest you’d just be in another place. It would be neat and a whole lot different than Colorado, but you can’t see everything that makes the rainforest the rainforest in just one part of the rainforest. When you study the rainforest, however, you live in the world of ideas and can see everything.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Citizens,

We’re lucky to live in a country that values education enough to make it free for all people. We do this because we know that you will be tomorrow’s leaders and visionaries, and we want our leaders to be educated. We think you’re an investment in the future.

Everyone in our community pays money so you can be sitting in this classroom, and they expect you to learn as much as you possibly can. Don’t let them down.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Individuals,

My aunt has a saying: “Normal is the setting on a dishwasher.”

The world is too big and rich and interesting for everyone to act the same way. We need risk takers, nonconformists, and iconoclasts to show us other ways to be in the world. We need people to follow the beat of their own drum, so we can get a bigger picture of the world and see it again in new ways.

Don’t dismiss people who do things differently than you. Listen to them. Learn from them. Try to see the world through their eyes.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Learners,

Pay attention! To your teachers, your parents, and each other, but mostly pay attention to the world around you. Know that the world wants you to know it. And the world wants to delight you in learning about it. No matter what you see in the world (a spinning top, a baby sock, a half-drawn map), you can find meaning and delight in it.

There’s more unknown in the world than known, so the curious mind will never, ever be bored.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Readers,

I’m glad we’ve started reading Charlotte’s Web. Some of you have probably read it before, and some people might say it’s too easy for fourth graders to read.

But E.B. White is a master! We can learn so much from him about good writing. If we pay attention, we’ll see that White avoids all nonsense in his prose. If we read closely, we’ll notice that he knows exactly what he’s doing.

If you want to be a writer, you have to be a reader. And you have to be an intense reader: someone who’s always looking for new ways of saying something we know is true.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

All that we learn in school was discovered by humans. Even when we study the natural world we do so through human senses and understanding. We study texts that other humans have created.

So it is all available to you. No matter your gender or skin color or where your family came from, it all belongs to you. We’re all human and we’re all capable of understanding and knowing the world. Don’t be afraid to dive into it and make it your own.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Prophets,

We often go on with our lives like they’re the only possible normal for us. We often lack the imagination to see that different lives are possible. That a different world is possible.

What we need is people like you to show us that a different reality is possible. You can accept the notion that only certain people can get ahead, that there’s not enough for everybody, and that no one can be trusted, or you can use your imagination to create a different way of life.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Students,

I know what I’m going to do today: I’m going to teach so hard that you might see smoke coming out of my ears. And I know what I’m going to  today and tomorrow and everyday into the future: I’m going to read and learn about the world more intensely than I ever have before.

Because I want to use my words to fight for what I believe is good, true, and beautiful.

And I expect each one of you to do the exact same thing.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Difference Makers,

You’ve probably always thought of subtraction as taking away. I know I have. But we can also think of subtraction as finding the difference between two numbers. Of course, we always end up with the same answer, but there are different ways of getting there and different ways of understanding what it means.

That’s true in life, too. There’s always another way to understand something. The more ways you have of understanding, the better your understanding will be. The world is too complex and dynamic to have only one meaning.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear World Movers,

One day I was looking at the dioramas at the Museum of Nature and Science and I had a revelation about the nature of knowledge: knowledge is all about taking experience from one place and trying to make it real again in another. In other words, knowledge is taking the world of Antarctica, turning it into words, pictures, or taxidermied animals, and making someone in Denver, CO feel like they’re there.

Knowledge is a magic trick. Knowledge is powerful and transformational. As you read and write today, think about the power you have to move the world around.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck