Dear Kings,
Always have a current obsession going. Find something that you can’t stop yourself from finding out more about. Find something that you can’t live without. Soon, that thing will pass and then you’ll have to find something else. But always have something that makes you feel more alive.
The world is too full of ideas and magic to ever be bored.
Sincerely,
Mr. Heimbuck
Dear Students,
An unfortunate thing in school and society is that we give a lot of attention to bad behavior. It’s a lot more fun to talk about the few people who are doing bad things than the vast majority of people who are not. We also tend to remember the bad behavior and forget about about all the people who are doing what they’re supposed to do.
When I’m driving, I completely forget about all of the people who are driving the speed limit like me. But we all remember the driver who zoomed past us going 20 or 20 mph too fast.
All of the attention on these bad behaviors can lead us to believe that the behaviors are a lot more widespread than they really are. We might think, “Everyone’s doing it, so what’s the big deal if I do?” But that’s just not true. The norm is to follow the rules.
Sincerely,
Mr. H
Dear Problem Solvers,
When we do math, we’re learning how to think. More importantly, we’re learning how to solve problems. In the “real world,” no one actually does arithmetic, but those who know how to are better at solving problems because they’ve had lots of practice and they have a powerful method for doing so.
You’re going to have to solve problems every day of your life, numerous times, almost constantly. What should I believe? What is true? What is the good life? What kind of toothpaste should I buy? Those are the types of philosophical problems that math prepares us to tackle in analytic and truthful ways.
So when you’re doing your math today, spend less time worrying about your answers and more time thinking about your thinking. The most important thing you learn from math can’t be written on the other side of an equal sign. It’s in your head.
Sincerely,
Mr. Heimbuck
letters to my class 