Dear Anita

My favorite transgender role model is Chaz Bono. Chaz Bono came out as a transmale in July 11 2009 and has been an activist for trans and lgbtq rights.  Chaz Bono was born to singers Sony and Cher.

“Chaz Bono Comes Out as Transgender” glaad.org

Dear Anita

Interesting that you should mention that some nuts might not be classified as nuts. Peanuts are short plants growing underground that require very little water .

Peanuts are legumes that fix nitrogen helping promote plant growth.  Peanuts form symbiotic relationships with Bradyrhizobium bacteria through root nodules allowing the bacteria to take atmospheric nitrogen (N2) and convert it to ammonia (NH3) which can be used by plants.

Cashews come from the fruit  cashew apple which produces seeds that are c-shaped that are cashews. Similarly, walnuts are seeds that come from the walnut fruit.

Pistachios are from the cashew family and they are seeds from pistachio trees.

Macadamia nuts are seeds from evergreen macadamia trees native to Australia.

Pine nuts are seeds from pine cones found in 20 species of pine trees. Some common pine trees to harvest pine nuts include Italian stone pine, Colorado pinion, and Chinese nut pine.

But walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, and chestnuts are true nuts. Nuts are technically dry fruits with seeds enclosed in a protective outer layer.

“Peanuts, pistachios, and other ‘nuts’ that aren’t actually nuts”  BusinessInsider

“Peanuts & Sustainability: A case of good bacteria” National Peanut Board

“Nuts” United Forest Service

“Macadamia Nuts” Agricultural Marketing Resource Center

“What are pine nuts?” thespruceeats.com

Dear Anita

Snow is beautiful, a winter wonderland blanketing the world in white.

I love nature, it refreshes the soul. A walk in the woods is calming and peaceful. I feel that the environment people live in is important to protect since without the earth there wouldn’t be a place for people to explore

Having an lgbtq curriculum promotes diversity and safe spaces in school. People gain awareness of different sexualities and gender identities providing them wider perspectives of the world. Providing lgbtq history in social studies or maybe mentioning lgbtq people in mental health courses can improve the mental health of students. Mental health is just as important as physical health and there’s not much emotional first aid courses offered in grade schools. Providing students with emotional first aid courses such as learning healthy coping mechanisms can help reduce depression, anxiety and suicide rates. I think that people come from different walks of life but they share the same skin. We all want to be loved and appreciated. By allowing a community of lgbtq people to feel safe can build relationships and help people feel less fear and prejudice towards lgbtq people. Some states like California, New Jersey, Oregon and Nevada have passed laws requiring lgbtq curriculum in schools and not allowing discrimination based on sexualities, race, or gender.

Scientists have discovered that about 10% of people who attend public schools identify within the lgbtq community, that is about 5 million students. If people can opt their children out of health and sexual education as well as lgbtq education, this does not promote acceptance and awareness of mental health and diversity. By acknowledging lgbtq people there can be more diversity and inclusion in the world.

Even though we all come from different walks of life we are made of the same elements. Earth the body, fire the soul, water the blood and air the breath. We all are connected in the ecosystem and by lifting each other up we help encourage diversity and caring communities reducing hate and prejudice.

“LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum as a path to better public health” ABA human rights 2022

Dear Anita

It’s been sunny and breezy in New Jersey with some rainy 🌧 days. I think that snows 🌨 are starting to come later in the year. Hope that you stay warm from the snowy weather.

Snowflakes are often associated with star shapes because when the hydrogen and oxygen in water meet other water molecules, the molecular bonds that form align the molecules into a six-fold symmetry pattern.

As snow ❄ falls, it interacts with water vapor in the atmosphere. At low humidity there is low water vapor in the air so the snowflakes are thinner and form a shape referred to as “plates.” At high humidity there is more water vapor so the snowflakes ❄ exhibit branching, the water molecules collect and bond together and the bond orientation creates straight lines (dendrites) that branch out in different directions causing the star-shaped patterns often associated with snowflakes ❄ Additionally at higher humidity, more water vapor can freeze to form snowflakes so the snowflakes are heavier.

Article: “Why are all snowflakes unique?” (BBC 2022)

Dear Anita

Opponents of incorporating LGBTQ inclusive curriculum mostly are concerned that it might impact other children or infringe on parents’ rights to raise their children as they see fit. Some families who are Christian oppose incorporating LGBTQ inclusive topics into schools.

However, having sexual orientation and gender identity taught in schools can help promote more diversity in the environment. Students learning about LGBTQ people will develop awareness about them and learn skills to communicate in the world without prejudice and discrimination. There’s prejudice and discrimination with hate crimes against people of color and LGBTQ people in the world and education might bring awareness and allow people to build better relationships. Everyone deserves to be appreciated for who they are and LGBTQ people are no different. In some English writing classes, students are required to read the book “The Picture of Dorian Grey” about a man who sold his soul to not age. His pride over his appearance led him to lose his free will to the Devil. What’s not mentioned is that the author who wrote the novel was gay. The more people are aware of people’s differences, the less prejudice there will be. Ignorance often causes apathy and not caring and sometimes leads to fear over people who are different. Children need to learn that it’s okay to be different and be able to learn things that help them build diverse perspectives on the world. Having LGBTQ inclusive education helps LGBTQ people who will have safe spaces and will improve their mental health.

Having age-appropriate LGBTQ education can help mitigate parents objections to things. Such as providing K-2 children activities like coloring. Coloring activities like tracing hands and coloring the hands different colors can help children learn about diversity because everyone has different shape hands and different colors. The students can take turns hanging up the hands and linking them together to show cooperation and teamwork. Since people of color are often marginalized and hurt, the hands activity might promote some sense of connection between people of different races and genders. The teacher can explain that everyone is different like the shape of their hands and each child could go around sharing something about them.

Then in grades 3-5 children can start learning about gender identity with simple activities. They can have a crayon with their name and write three things they enjoy doing. Have the teacher encourage the students to write hobbies that they enjoy. Each person is unique. If a guy says he likes to cook then that’s great. Have teacher explain to them that cooking and building things are life skills not limited to gender. By fifth grade, they can join clubs and community events. Maybe have teachers hold a tea party and invite a guest speaker about gender identity to help students better understand different perspectives.

Also, allowing students to get involved in the community allows them to see different people and builds connections.

In middle school, sexual education along with sexual orientation is important to teach. Many people are reaching puberty and they might feel insecure or have emotional well-being issues. Providing mental health courses can help middle school people like courses in emotional first aid allowing students to talk about their feelings. Telling men it’s okay to cry, dispelling toxic masculinity. Having groups with lgbtq people hosting bake sales or having tea can help people realize that lgbtq people are just like everyone else who deserves to be supported. People during middle school will often feel self-conscious about their bodies as they undergo changes and it’s a good thing to talk about biological anatomy and incorporate transgender and nonbinary people in here.

High school with SATs and college pressures can cause lots of mental health problems for people. Some people bullied in middle school might start developing depression and begin to socially isolate when going to high school. That’s why bullying, depression and racism are important topics to cover in high school. Many high school teens attempt suicide too. Having high school teens know there are safe spaces can save lives. That’s why it’s important that lgbtq people have mental health resources in high school because having safe spaces can help them with their mental health.

Most colleges are diverse and teach various topics maybe with the exception of religious private colleges. But public colleges are quite diverse and having students learn about lgbtq people and gender identity in early grade school can help them when they meet diverse people in colleges..

Even though lgbtq people might not have it easy in life, education brings awareness and understanding so there’s less hate and prejudice in life.

Dear Anita

Snowflakes form when temperatures are lower than -10⁰C (-20⁰ C snowflakes) and the air is saturated with water vapor.  The air contains tiny particles of clay, salts and dust that are picked up by the wind. When temperatures get cold enough and the air is saturated with water vapor, the tiny particles in the air start to freeze and form ice crystals. The tiny droplets of water vapor that freeze are still too small to fall to the ground. So they supercool which is when the liquid droplets are cooled below their melting point without freezing solid, allowing small droplets of water to accumulate until they droplets of water vapor become heavy enough to fall to the ground. The cold temperatures in the atmosphere air cause the droplets of water to freeze and crystals to form into different shapes of snowflakes. No two snowflakes are alike.

In some places like Wisconsin when the weather drops below -40 ⁰ C the trees will explode because they can’t take the cold temperatures. This is another example of supercooling. When snowflakes form the temperatures outside are below freezing and trees must protect themselves. They do this by adapting to the cold temperatures with thick layers of bark and store sugars in their inner cells. However if temperatures get to below -40 ⁰C then the trees sugar sap contains water and water freezes. So the tree’s life supply freezes and it can’t take the pressure of the cold temperatures so it’s bark explodes and the tree dies. Supercooling of water is the reason why this happens. Since the trees store sap to prepare for the winter, if the temperatures are too cold (below-40⁰C ) then the liquid sap in trees becomes hardened and doesn’t flow as well and later the hardened sap begins to develop ice crystals that chill the tree from inside and cause its bark to crack.

I love learning about nature in my pine barrens class. My pine barrens professor believes everyone is unique and has potential to inspire the world. I’ve learned lots about the New Jersey Pine Barrens in the class. I learned about supercooling with trees too. The Pine Barrens spans from Ocean County to Cape May County New Jersey and it’s a UN  recognized biosphere  because of the importance of its species like pine barrens tree frog. The Pine Barrens contains red cedar trees (which are actually juniper trees ) and the true cedars are Atlantic White Cedar. Atlantic White Cedar trees make good tassels for building road paveways and for making charcoal to help keep warm in winters. There are lots of “ghost forests” where the Atlantic White Cedars were chopped down for industrial purposes and it takes about 90 years for the trees to regrow back. Atlantic White Cedar trees are very important since they help with holding soil together and prevent bad floods. The Pine Barrens is just as large as Yosemite National Park and the Great Egg Harbor River in Egg Harbor City, NJ used to be as deep as the Thames River in England. The Pine Barrens has 17.7 trillion gallons of water underneath that feeds groundwater Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer for people in South Jersey.

Before the Pine Barrens was a “no-place” and people didn’t think much of it because it’s sandy, acidic soils couldn’t grow anything but now it’s a “someplace” with books written about it and its biodiversity.

Dear Anita

Sometimes there isn’t a way to fully heal from the hurts people faced, but people can grow from them. I believe Jenny was able to let go of her anger, seek forgiveness and fly up into the sky like a bird. She found her wings to fly above the hurts and her spirit came by to reassure Forrest that she’s at peace. Forrest as the feather drifts down by his feet realizes Jenny has gotten her wings to fly, mending hurts, releasing things.

I feel that holding onto anger and building it up is harmful for emotional and physical health. People who hold onto anger are more prone to anxiety and depression as well as having higher risk of heart attacks.

Prejudice and discrimination often create anger and hatred which leads to violence in the world. I feel that allowing people in middle school through college to have emotional first aid classes and lgbtq awareness can help them develop more awareness about the diversity in the world. Students can learn anger management and stress management tips like meditation, music, talking in groups, playing games and learn how emotions can impact people’s health and the world around them. Likewise, having a culture awareness class like lgbtq community and gender identity might help people understand the community better. I feel like there might be some backlash with incorporating lgbtq and gender identity in schools because some people feel like it might impact people’s mental health. But I feel it would be helpful to bring awareness and might be fun for students to enjoy rainbow cake, learn about transgender people while coloring the trans flag. And having guest speakers from the lgbtq community host events like tea and music to make students more comfortable that lgbtq people are people too. I feel with more awareness for lgbtq and trans people there will be less prejudice and fears as people begin to value the people around them.

Everyone is a snowflake, beautiful and unique and having that ability to learn to sparkle can help people in their lives.