DAY 13

On top of Little Roundtop at Gettysburg, February 2019. The statue on the rock is General Warren. He was the one that noticed that the hill was undefended. He rapidly found reinforcements which saved the hill, which saved the Union left flank, which helped win the battle, which was the turning point in the war that ended slavery. Thank you, General Warren!
The constructive person stands
against the spiritual emptiness
of encroaching technology and
does not let himself be emptied by it.
He lives and works with
the machine without
becoming a machine.
- Rollo May

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1ST DAY THOUGHTS + BEWARE OF FALSE DILEMMAS + MORE OF WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING


1st Day Thoughts

Thank you to all who did fixes and sent in activities yesterday. Honorable mention would have to go to Olivia Rotondo who by 9:11 am had performed, written up and sent me her activity, calculating the speed of a car on the road. I'm pretty sure that the speed of her completing the assignment was faster than the car.

I imagine it was a little tough and maybe a little overwhelming to go back to doing school work for some of you. I have to admit that this distance learning thing felt a little weird to me, but it was good to hear back from many of you via email. I'm looking forward to hearing from the rest that need to fix before the end of the week.

I do miss the face-to-face interaction, though. While it is nice not to have to get up at 5:15 am, and it is nice to be at home, I do miss being in class with you. There's something magical about teaching in person that I can only hope will still happen over the internet. We'll see, I guess.

Note: Special thanks go to my colleagues Mr. Bugenhagen, Mr. Damm and Mr. Restad who came up with this week's activities.


Beware of False Dilemmas

A false dilemma is when someone makes it seem as if there are only two extreme choices when in fact there are more choices available.

Here's one I heard recently:

We should re-open the economy because it's better to choose to save the economy and let a few people die rather than kill the economy to save a few people.

This presents us with only two choices: save the economy or kill it. Close everything or open everything.

This is a false dilemma because there's a middle ground where not everything is closed, which is in fact what's happening now. Believe it or not some sectors of the economy are even thriving. Ms. Newhart's one brother works in a steel mill in the Lehigh Valley. They're working 7 days a week to meet demand for make-shift hospitals and hospital equipment. On the other hand, her other brother works for Merrell shoes and they're taking a hit.

Ms. Newhart's one sister is a nurse, and is able to pick up extra shifts if she wants to (although we worry about her being on the front lines, so to speak.) But Ms. Newhart's other sister is a realtor and that's in a major slow-down.

My brother works for a company that makes software simulations for the military. He's got more work than he can do. My sister works for an investment company, and although she's able to work from home, she's worried about her company.

I am not trying to minimize the situation, because I know it's hard for many people. But there is a middle road here in which parts of the economy continue, and some even grow stronger. It's not just a simple matter of everything open or everything closed.

In general, when you are presented with an overly simply and sharp choice, always think: Is there another way? Zoom out and try to see the bigger picture, and I think you'll agree that there often is a middle road.


More of What I've Been Doing


Mr. Mont with guitar; picture taken by Ms. Newhart.
Besides keeping up the Corona Diary (which actually takes hours to do each night, believe it or not) and grading, what's Mr. Mont been up to?

Some of you know that I've been learning guitar. It's been tricky trying to get my 54 year-old brain to learn new things, but I love playing. And it's good for teachers, I think, to be on the other side - trying to learn something new. It gives you perspective and keeps you humble.

So I recently decided to record myself playing along to songs and discovered how bad my sense of timing really is. Apparently, I ain't got no rhythm. But as with all things, it's a matter of practice. So I'm working on it.


Camera rig first try (London Bridge 1).


Camera rig second try (London Bridge 2 with screen).
I've also been trying to photograph old maps & newspapers for the historical society. Since I don't have a scanner big enough, I take separate pictures of every part and have photoshop put them all together. But photoshop doesn't do a good job unless the camera is parallel to the surface and in the middle.

After realizing that the camera on my phone is plenty good for the task, I still needed a way to hold it steady and parallel to what I'm photographing.

I had the idea of making a rig out of K'nex to hold my phone. My first try looked like London Bridge, but it wasn't steady enough.

My second try worked better, but I was using plexiglass (clear plastic) on top of what was photographing to hold it flat, and the plexiglass was reflecting the colorful K'nex which you could see in the pictures. So I made a screen out of a trifold display board that was laying around. There's a small hole cut in the top for the camera to see through.

The results didn't turn out too poorly:
Map of King of Prussia, Roberts Area & Tredyffrin, 1913
Upper Merion Road Map, 1965
Upper Merion Township Map, 1960