Tag: truth

23 February 2015

February 23rd, 2015

Dear Sentence Writers,

Man, sentences are wondrous things. A well written sentence can instantly, in the time it takes you to scan your eyes from dawning article to crepuscular period, transform nothingness into a clear and sunlit image that you’ve been waiting your whole life for someone to show you.

A good sentence is balanced; a good sentence is clear; a good sentence sounds like what it says; a good sentence tells the truth. I believe a well-written sentence can make the world a better place. But writing a good sentence is hard.

When you write a sentence you’re going to ask the simple questions: Is there a subject? Is there a verb? Did I express a complete thought? Did I capitalize the first word and punctuate at the end? But you’re also going to ask the complex questions: Is there a better way for me to say this? How will my reader understand this? Will this sentence make the world a better place?

Sincerely,

Mr. H
December 4, 2012

December 3rd, 2012

Dear Historians,

How did we get where we are today? That’s the big question that historians try to answer. As historians we’re not too interested in the why questions. Those questions are too complex and elusive. Many times, we don’t really know why things happened, but with research, insight, and hard work, we can piece together how things happened, even things that happened hundreds or thousands of years ago.

History is never a simple story. The story of Cortes and the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire isn’t the simple story of Spanish power overwhelming the Aztecs. As we read yesterday, some Aztecs joined the Spanish because they were unhappy with Aztec rule. Similarly, not all Spaniards approved of Spain’s conquest of the Americas. Today we’ll read about Bartolome de las Casas, a Spaniard who spoke out against the enslavement and mistreatment of native peoples.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck
October 1, 2012

September 30th, 2012

Dear Talkers,

This weekend I was reminded of the Three Sieves. I’m not sure where the three sieves came from–some people say they came from Socrates–but I can see why they’ve been passed down through the years. They remind us that we should always be careful with what we say. To help us, we should pass everything we say through three sieves (a sieve is like a filter. Remember when we used the Sieve of Eratosthenes to filter out all the composite numbers through 100.).

The first sieve is to ask ourselves if what we’re about to say is true. The second sieve is to ask if what we’re about to say is kind. And the last sieve is to ask if what we want to say is necessary. If our words can pass through all of these sieves–if we can be sure that they’re true, that they’re kind, and that they’re necessary–then we truly have something meaningful to share with the world. If not, we should probably leave it unsaid.

I can’t wait to hear your true, kind, and necessary words today,

Mr. Heimbuck
27 September 2011

September 27th, 2011

Dear Statisticians,

Numbers become data when we collect them and analyze them. For our data to be good, we have to go about collecting it in accurate, reliable, and precise ways. For our data to be meaningful, we have to use it to draw conclusions. The world is full of data. Some of it is good, some of it is bad. Some of it is reliable, some of it is not. Your job is to find the good data, analyze it for meaning, and use it to say something true about the world.

One tool for analyzing data is landmarks: median, maximum, minimum, range, mode, and mean. These landmarks help us make sense of data. Today we’ll collect data, organize data, and analyze data using landmarks. Then, we’ll use it to try to say something true about the world.

Sincerely,

Mr. H

Tag: truth

23 February 2015

December 4, 2012

October 1, 2012

27 September 2011