Dear Marine Biology Teacher,
My ignorance regarding science (in any form) is an embarrassment of riches. The fact that I have a degree at all and can't tell you the difference between a femur or a tibia is nothing to brag about, that's for sure. Lord, how my tenth grade Biology teacher, Mrs. Ward, tried. It's not her fault.
Thankfully, as a high school English teacher and now a literacy coach for the district, I have managed to navigate through life just fine without being an expert on shark vertebrae, the cell wall, or Houghton Mifflin's Chapter 7 molecular structure vocabulary. Still, I would be lying if I said there aren't times I wish I knew more about the atmosphere around me.
Like for instance, today I read a news story in the Pensacola News Journal about a natural phenomenon of starfish littering Navarre Beach in the wake of Hurricane Sally's destruction. I wanted to know more.
Charlene Mauro is a teacher in Santa Rosa County who is also the director of the Navarre Beach Marine Science Station. I have never met her, but I hear she's pretty amazing, which means she could probably teach, even an ignorant fool like me.
I hope she does because I am very curious about how all these beautiful creatures washed ashore. I call them beautiful creatures because I don't know if they are really fish. Is that just what people call them or are they really fish? In case you haven't noticed, I am trying my best to not look like an idiot when I talk this sciency talk stuff.
In the article they quoted her as saying the grey starfish have washed up in abundance because of all the strong currents coming onto shore, and they feed in the inner tidal area. She also added something about oxygen levels being higher than normal and how it was good for the starfish.
I didn't really understand any of that, but I did understand loud and clear the part where she said, "These celestial creatures will likely die on the beach unless they're washed back into the Gulf with the tides."
It immediately made me think of the starfish poem every teacher has read about the little boy who begins the arduous task of throwing countless starfish back into the sea only to hear his critics say, "It won't really make a difference."
We have a lot of displaced students in schools right now. Some are lost behind computer screens disappearing into a cyber black hole, others are wading through flooded and broken homes, a handful are quarantined and grappling with how to learn from afar. A select few are sitting in traditional wooden desks struggling to stay focused on molecular structure vocabulary.
I have no idea how we'll get them all back in their natural habitat, but I think Ms. Mauro might. Like I said, I've never met the woman, but I am guessing she would say something along the lines of, "Roll up your sleeves. There's a lot of work to do. It makes a difference to the one. Who wants to help?"
-CDB