Song and Poem
This month’s song is a great American classic! Sing along with this video. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot or try this one that includes lyrics.
Hopefully by now you have memorized the first half of our last poem. This week, please add the third stanza.
And, remember to review the poems you have previously learned. How many can you still recite? (Ingenious Little Old Man, Ooey Gooey, the Vulture, If You Were Busy Being Kind, Can’t and Good Timber.) You can find them all listed on this document.
The Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
Did you know that this poem can be seen from the lens of economics? Somehow, I don’t think that is what Mr. Frost had in mind when he wrote it, but in class, I’ll make an argument for that idea. See if you can figure out what I have in mind.
Economics
I hope you have enjoyed your taste of economic principles this year. So far we have touched on the concepts of needs vs. wants, scarcity, opportunity cost, the importance of choice, the role of competition and incentives.
I wish I had understood these concepts earlier in my life! Consider this quote. Watch the following videos and see if you agree or disagree.
In particular, the idea of opportunity costs or trade offs has been impactful to me. Here’s our good friend Mr. Clifford back with an interesting claim: Everything you have ever done is something you wanted to do. Is he right?
Explain the idea of opportunity cost to a parent. Discuss an example of a recent family or personal decision. Now that you better understand the opportunity cost or trade off, would you make that same decision again? Write out an example of an example from your life of trade offs. Come to class prepared to share.
The Tuttle Twins
Read the Tuttle Twins and the Education Vacation and the Tuttle Twins and the Fate of the Future. Come to class prepared to discuss what they learned. (If you don’t have access to the book, see the links below the image that will take you to read aloud videos online.)
Tuttle Twins and the Education Vacation
Tuttle Twins and the Fate of the Future
Plan your own “Field Trip”
This week, I invite you to plan your own dream field trip… or really, your dream education vacation! Consider the question Mr. Gatto asked in the Education Vacation book: “If you had the freedom to control your own education, what would you want to learn and become an expert in?”
Imagine that you have two weeks to go anywhere and explore anything. Where would you go? What would you want to explore and learn about? What questions would you hope to answer?
Your main assignment this week is to create a presentation about your unique education vacation. Do your research and create a unique way to showcase your interests.
For example, let’s say that your interest is in marine biology. Perhaps you would want to spend a week as an apprentice at sea world. What animals would you particularly want to study? What would you hope to learn about them? Are there other sites that might deepen your understanding?
Bonus opportunity: discuss with your family the Fate of the Future book and see if you can come up with a creative solution to a current government program.
Field Trip Book
This week, start reading the Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Next week we will go explore the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point.
