From: Kathy Isaacs <kisaacs>
Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2001 20:25:10 -0400

I'd like to echo Dean Schneider's enthusiasm for Starry Messenger. It has been a part of our sixth grade curriculum, now, for two years. My sixth graders pore over the illustrations; they love the picture with the babies and the one with the many children playing children's games they recognize. They find the cursive daunting -- some even skip it on first reading. They find the idea that it took SO LONG for Galileo to be pardoned mind-boggling. They refer to that over and over throughout the rest of the year. The concept that science ideas may be accepted slowly, or not at all, is one of the most important we teach. The idea that the earth revolves around the sun is, in fact, also new to some of our sixth graders! Our discussions always bring out our admiration for a man who can stick to his own beliefs, and the evidence of his own eyes and experience, in the face of public disapproval. It is lovely to have big ideas presented in such an engaging way. Sis is a master of presenting ideas as well as information through illustration as well as word, and my students, who are more visually adept than verbally sophisticated, appreciate that.


-Kathy Isaacs kisaacs at mindspring.com
Received on Mon 04 Jun 2001 07:25:10 PM CDT