4/21/2021

April 21, 2021

My Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Sorry I missed our letter yesterday. I had to leave the house early to go to do an observation of a student teacher. She was trying to explain trigonometry relations on the unit circle. I’m afraid it was quite jumbled. The students sat quietly in their desks with their masks on so I have no idea what they might have been thinking. Some were taking notes, but I’m not sure the notes made any sense.

Not only is this a challenging topic to teach, but the kids were only recently back in the classroom. The student teacher was worried that some kids might be traumatized because a student at the school had recently died when a car full of teens went off the road. She wanted to let them know that she understood if they were having trouble concentrating. This came out in a convoluted way, including playing a Bob Marley song.

Teaching is hard these days. The social separation required due to CV exacerbating all of the awkwardness that comes with being a teen. It’s made even harder right now with our awakening to racial injustice.

 Ma’Khia Bryant’s death in Columbus, OH, yesterday is another reminder that we still have a long way to go before we achieve justice & equality. The conviction of GF’s murderer is a step in the right direction but I don’t think we’ve achieved justice. Let’s keep reminding our fellow citizens that there are alternatives to violence & emphasize that lethal force should never be the first response to a situation.

Let’s pray for peace around the globe – in Columbus, in Myanmar, in Afghanistan & Iran.

BYBS,