letters to my class

Dear Dreamers,

When an ant carries a rock to the anthill, it will never see and enjoy the anthill for itself. When people have big visions for the future, they won’t live  to see them realized. But we have to have faith that our work will benefit future generations. And we have to keep the vision that we can make the world a much better place for everybody.

Rockets explode, buildings collapse, and new technologies fizzle out. But we have to stay true to our vision that we can make the world better, even if it we’re not around to see it.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Time Travelers,

In high school we read the poem “My Last Duchess.” The poem is old, uses a lot of tough language, makes reference to a history I didn’t know very well, and I didn’t get it at all. And because I didn’t understand it, I didn’t think it mattered.

But my teacher showed me how wrong I was.

He walked us through the poem and, and I found it darkly funny, subversive, and really, really smart. I was astounded that a human could create something so true and that it could still ring true 150  years later. It seemed like the poet wrote that poem just to entertain me!

Just because something’s old, doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. Just because something’s tough, doesn’t mean it can’t speak to us.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Readers,

Books are magical things. I’m reading a novel about a black girl who grew up in Brooklyn in the 1970s. And even though I’m a white guy who grew up in a tiny town in Wyoming in the 1990s, I feel like I am in the book.

That’s what books do. They allow you to empathize with and understand people, places, and times that you never could have imagined. And in all of your travels through books, you usually find that one spark that unites people everywhere.

So as you read today, look for that spark.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Coloradoans,

It’s important to know about the place around you. Know its history, its geography, its people, and its culture. These things give a place its flavor and these things matter. They help the people in a place determine what makes up “the good life.” And that’s a question that each of you has to answer everyday.

So we’ll get to know Colorado’s geography, history, and culture. We’ll talk about what people in Colorado think is important, we’ll sing songs about Colorado’s beauty, and we’ll read stories that tell about its fascinating history. And in learning all of this, we’ll better understand what’s happening right now.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Students,

You might hear messages from society that you’re not good enough.You might hear that you can’t succeed in school because you’re a girl (or because your a boy), because your parents don’t drive a fancy car (or because they do), because of where you or your parents were born, or because of the color of your skin.

These are all lies.

And it’s important that you do not believe them. Because they’re the types of lies that we hear so often, it’s easy to believe they’re true.

Each of you is good enough to succeed in school and life.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Mathematicians,

Today we’re going to talk about those special numbers that only have one factor pair–prime numbers. We found quite a few of them between 1 and 36 yesterday, and today we’re going to look at them a little bit closer. You probably noticed some similarities about them and maybe you think you noticed some patterns.

I love prime numbers. There’s just something about them that makes me feel alive. When I think about them, it’s as if the universe is whispering its secrets into my ear. That’s what doing math is all about.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Readers,

If you read you will succeed. Take a look it’s in a book. Reading is FUNdamental. These are all true statements. The more you read, the more you’ll know about the world. And the more successful you’re likely to be.

But reading’s greatest benefit is that it gives you a richer inner life. It forces you to see more than is really there. Sure, it helps your brain know more facts about the world, but it also helps your heart understand what those facts might mean.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Writers,

You have something to say. We know that everyone in this class is an expert on a variety of topics. We know everyone in this class lives with passion. And we know that everyone in this class has the ability to find their voice to move people to action.

While it may be easier for powerful people to find their voice, I believe that each of you can as well. And when you do, you’ll find that you can’t just go through life accepting it as is. You’ll be compelled to change it. And when you use your strong, passionate, insightful voice in concert with others, you’ll be able to do it.

You have something to say. Find your voice.

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Probabilistic Problem Solvers,

My dramatic daughter told us a story about the time she fell on the ground and “all the ants in the world climbed on me.” That reminded me of  reading E.O. Wilson say that the biomass of the all the ants in the world was equal to that of all humans.

That means that if you put all the ants in the world on one side of a seesaw and all the humans on the other they would balance out. Other scientists disagree and say there’s no way the tiny ant can equal the much, much bigger human.

But like most BIG QUESTIONS, this is not something we can know for sure (do you have a really big teeter-totter?). All we can do is create a good method for investigating the question and then decide how likely it is to be true.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Tinkerers,

We live in a ready-made world. Things are given to us and we use them until they break, never bothering to ask what’s inside or if we can fix it ourselves.

I hope that changes this year. I hope we learn to ask questions about how things work, why they work, and how we can make them work better (or at least in a different way). I hope we learn to take things apart, look at their guts, and repurpose those innards to create something, rather than just consume it.

Because most things in life don’t work in just one “right” way. The world is sitting there waiting for us to recreate it in our own vision.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck