What a thing it is to come to school and teach after an election like this one–run a math night, care for my own family, take the trash out. As one who teaches for social justice–progress, equity, multiculturalism–it shakes me to my very core to see so clearly on a red and blue map the vastness of the conservative, nationalist, regressive movement that came out for this election.
My job is not outwardly political, and to teach only one side of an issue or push my opinions would be, for me, unethical. The reasons I teach are deeply spiritual, and basically come down to my desire to strengthen the connections my students and I have with each other, the TBS community, their families, and the greater world. My job yesterday was thus to listen, to validate the range of emotions, to confirm that everyone is safe–whoever their family members voted for–and that our goal as human beings will be to continue to strive for understanding and empathy. We will continue to develop our academic, social, and emotional lives in concert. We will teach critical thinking, deepen our perspectives through research and role plays, and take action when we observe inequity.
This morning, we received a letter from Shmoop University, an educational website that makes videos for children to learn. They are based in Los Altos, and the site brags that their employees have PhDs from Harvard, Stanford, and Cal. The students wrote them a letter after we showed them a video on surface area that made fun of the narrator, “Harold the Hobo,” who was “not the sharpest ginsu in the drawer,” and he “wished he had a drawer.” The premise of the ill-conceived narrative was that he wanted to design a cozy for the cardboard box where he lived. Here’s an example of one of the student letters:
Dear Shmoop,
We were browsing the internet looking for something to teach us about surface area when came across your video. The main character was named “Harold the Hobo”. It had Harold the Hobo living in a box. Using this word is offensive to people experiencing homelessness. You also included another stereotype which said that harold was “Not the sharpest ginsu in the drawer”, Implying that he is not very smart. You also said that he wishes he had a drawer. You said that your videos are made by PhD students that graduated from Harvard, Berkeley and Stanford. These are supposed to be educational videos for kids but they are teaching kids how to insult people experiencing homelessness. We request that you take this video off your site.
Shmoop is taking the video down, they reported, and will soon post one more sensitive to those experiencing extreme poverty and homelessness. The next four years will be rich for this type of action: stay tuned.
Upcoming Events
Cerrito Feast is next Thursday, from 12 to 1. This has been an annual tradition in Cerrito for the last nine years, and we will again cook up a storm for y’all before going away the following week. Please let me know if you’d like to help peel, chop, boil, braise, or knead. I also would love some shoppers to help acquire the goods, and we have budget to pay you back. Grandfriends are invited, and siblings generally come by, too. Ping me if you can help.
Grandfriends’ Day is next Friday. Check NewsNotes for details.
Daily practices: build these in, but generally do them after the homework specific to tonight
Typing: be disciplined about the home row! Click the link on the top of this page to take you right to the site. My former students, pictured above, were both reminising today about how they wish they’d practiced their typing more in 4/5!
Reading: always 20+ minutes, always record the book and pages in your assignment planner
Spelling: practice your spelling words on the word ring. If it’s not highlighted, that means you didn’t spell it right last week and still need to study it for this week. You can now use Quizlet to study your words. Most of you created a quizlet set today to practice, which should be fun for you.
Specific to tonight:
Wordly Wise: chapter 5 is due Friday, so do a section each night
Math:
- 4th grade:Fractions Worksheet
- 5th grade: Finish this week’s packet.
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