Dear Parents,
We will be completing Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird next week. We have been looking into what might constitute a jury in the deep south in the 1930’s in the United States. After completing TO Kill a Mockingbird we will begin Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. I would be most appreciative if you could obtain the book as soon as possible. Here is the Amazon link:
At the same time, we delved into a present-day story in which African-Americans were convicted of crimes of which they were subsequently exonerated. Known as the “Central Park Five” 5 African-Americans were convicted of sexually assaulting a woman in Central Park in New York City in 1989. Several years later, the real perpetrator confessed and the Central Park 5 were exonerated. We looked at two videos about the Central Park Five. The first was a simple explanation of facts with a timeline.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUdFd-KAaEc
The second video that we began watching was a dramatization of events in a Netflix series entitled, “When They See Us.”
https://www.netflix.com/browse
We’ve also been following the aftermath of the presidential election closely, noting that President Trump, using the power of the Attorney General’s office has launched investigations into voter fraud. We also read about the president’s firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper less than a week after the election. We also reviewed the predictions that we made on Monday November 2nd a day before the election.
Biden – 349
Trump – 189
We came close. Missing on only two states – North Carolina and Florida.
We’ve continued to study the U.S. Civil War, having gotten through the First Battle of Bull Run (also known as Manassas) in Virginia about thirty-five miles outside Washington D.C. We’ve also investigated the timeline with respect to when southern states made the decision to secede from the Union and John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia on October 16, 1859.
We also watched a short video on Bill Maher’s Real Time with Tristan Harris on how social media manipulates its users for the purpose of keeping people at odds and reinforcing their sometimes flawed beliefs. I would recommend that all parents watch this as well. It is only five minutes long:
In Math we worked on ratios all week and learned how they are intertwined with fractions and percentages. We also had a spirited 24 Game.
In Science, we conducted the following dry ice experiment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOgUpI4c2yk
Just for fun, we listened to a comedy routine that was first performed by the duo of Abbott and Costello in 1938 entitled “Who’s on First” while following along with a transcript. The routine demonstrates the myriad ways in which language can be both used and misused and understood as well as misunderstood. Here is a video of the routine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTcRRaXV-fg
Take care and have a restful weekend.
Dr. Michael