I recently created a lesson and Powerpoint presentation from They Say, I Say about appropriate ways to integrate the ideas of others into our essays. My kids are writing the Value of Life essay, and I looked at drafts last week. Am I tired? Stressed out with holiday hoopla? Why else did I want to put my head in my hands and weep? Several kids — despite all we have talked about — wrote dutiful little reports: Intro about difficulty of quantifying value of life, Par.2 what Hamlet said, Par.3 What Lance said, Par.4 What Human Life Calculator said, Par. 5 What the Sept. 11 report said, Conclusion about difficulty of quantifying value of life. Argggggh!

But I smiled at them. Thanked them for getting this far right before a holiday. Told them that this is a decent way to prewrite — to summarize everything they heard — but that essentially, what many of them they had so far amounted to an 8th grade report. I read some intros out loud from the better writers. Invited them to be philosophical, to add their voice to the conversation, and to use the pieces from the other writers as touchstones — something to riff off of. Have a happy break, I told them, and go think about life — talk to people over the New Years holidays about this topic.

My most recent birthday was my 50th, and although I hope to have many years ahead of me, I must acknowledge that a fair sized chunk is already behind me. (I have some junk in my cosmic trunk.) I always get a little reflective around my birthday, but this one was signficantly different. And New Year’s always gets me to thinking and writing. Also different: I’ve attended three funerals since October: a colleague was killed in a car accident, our school board president suffered a heart attack, my friend’s elderly father died. My own father is living out his last years in a hospital bed in our living room. I have spent a fair amount of time thinking about life recently. This value of life essay is an essay I could WRITE.

Another thing about this unit: my colleague came in my classroom to observe me on the day that I had the Human Life Calculator up on the wall via LCD projector, and we plugged in his numbers: 32 year old male, 35 year old spouse, both expect to retire 60-65, he earns $52k, she earns $35k, no kids: his life valued at $976,000. We plugged in my numbers: 50 year old female, no spouse, expect to retire 65, earn $62k, 1 child 19 years of age: $276,000. Then when my daughter turns 20 in March, my life’s value drops to $169,000. This just pissed me off. Not that it matters. Not that I don’t understand it. But it pissed me off anyway. And that anger gave me some insight into the 9/11 article.

The kids then said some very sweet things about my value to them, which almost made me misty-eyed, so to avoid a maudlin moment, I started thinking about doing push ups.

Then we plugged in hypothetical numbers, and just changed genders: here were the parameters without gender figured in: 27 years of age, spouse 25 years of age, earning $50k and $40k respectively, retirement at 65, 1 child. The male’s life was valued at less than the female’s! This surprised everyone for a moment, and then the males in the classroom theorized that their lives are worth less because they die sooner. That has to be the correct reason.

That money day was a strange day in class.