Glad to see the headline has been updated.

No ice, ever. And the Brita stays on the counter. That way I can go without drinking water all day and then chug 60 straight ounces at a go. Healthy!

There’s a reason we call them Nazio. Forza Roma!

Agreed. I have had conversations with several kids who have come to me privately to thank me for the letter, to tell me how much it meant to them to know that I am an ally, that I care about them—and I’ve had a couple conversations with kids who fundamentally disagree with me but who understood why I shared it and are…

Thanks. I just had a pretty harrowing time of it with my most conservative class. Their faces went stony as they read it. But do you know what I did? I talked to them. I explained where I am coming from, why I thought it was important that they read it AND RESPOND TO IT, and I listened to them. And they got it. I…

Well, as some people in the replies who are, say, calling for me to be fired are missing, the kids absolutely know my political views. (That said, I really do find it odd that people find my description of Trump voters as “angry” problematic, given that many of them self-describe that way.) Regardless, I wanted to…

Happy to have it shared. Thanks for the kind words!

Fair point, and I don’t know what to make of it. So I’ll do what I asked my students to do: listen, and try to learn.

Rhetoric definitely factored into that bit—I wanted to move into the bit on not being able to solve anger through anger, fear through fear, etc. And as some people in the replies who are, say, calling for me to be fired are missing, the kids absolutely know my political views. That said, I really do find it odd that…

Well, yes, I see that, but I guess I don’t see how the list of possible friends—gay, Latino/a, Muslim, Jewish, etc.—excludes girls and women? Heck, I even explicitly said “Latino and Latina.” The mothers/sisters/girlfriends thing was in addition to other female friends—to remind them that it’s possible that those…

I’ll let you know in four years. (They mostly listened respectfully. Whether it really meant anything to them...)

I have to hope it matters. If I don’t believe students can grow, I should stop teaching. (And thanks for the gif—I’ve never gotten applause from Bill Murray before!)

Well, if you don’t think it’s an incontestable fact that a very large segment of his support is angry and fearful, I don’t know what to tell you—that, at least the anger bit, is how they describe themselves. It didn’t seem controversial to me to agree with them. And you’re right, of course, that this is “peppered”…

This is my attempt to engage those supporters in a conversation. To turn the gloating into dialogue. I can only hope it will help, a little.

That’s why I wrote them this, despite all the pissed-off folks in the comments excoriating me for “pushing my beliefs on my students.” This is their world, and my job is to prepare them for it. I believe that we need to prepare them to know others if they are going to live in that world. And since they certainly knew…

I posted this in response to another reply below, but I think it mostly answers your qualms as well:

I’m not trying to convince them to convert to anything. I’m asking them, regardless of whom they supported in the election, to listen and try to understand those who are scared. If I can’t ask my students to think, listen, and learn, then what kind of teacher am I? I certainly don’t believe that all they need to…

Thanks! I think it did. Or I hope so, anyway.

It’s a boys’ school so their day-to-day contacts here are not with female friends. I was trying to make it hit home for them, though I am aware of the dangers of the “she’s somebody’s mother/daughter” trope.

That means a lot. Thanks. I don’t know how much good it will do, but I have to hope.