Wednesday, October 2 - AM Fluency

Our opening conversation was inspired by a book I recently read on the science of chaos theory. In addition to the so-called “butterfly effect,” chaos theory is often captured by this catchily phrased scenario:

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost.

For want of the shoe, the horse was lost.

For want of the horse, the rider was lost.

For want of the rider, the battle was lost.

For want of the battle, the kingdom was lost.

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail. 

I asked students to reflect on this scenario. We talked about how our lives are often impacted in large ways by small events.

I then introduced our learning objectives for the term.

We spent the rest of the class finishing the article on immigration and GOP rhetoric. As with last class, students had a lot to say about this issue. We spent a lot of time talking about how an influx of immigrants to a town taxes the infrastructure of that town. We don’t really have any solutions to this and other problems, just an acute awareness of them.