Entrance Slip: September 21 (Sharon Kallis)

Sharon Kallis' point on "happily [divesting] the responsibility of taking care of ourselves" stood out to me (page 21). Despite being aware of our inabilities to survive without specific technologies, her explanation of outsourcing highlighted the choice we made to prioritize comfort over effort. For some reason, it made me feel really uncomfortable to be so aware of our inevitable dependences (which is a good thing!). Sharon's outline of the situation elucidated the shift in priorities and potential consequences that could occur without enough effort to change, which was something I really resonated with. Given the evidences of human-impacted climate change, I think it's crucial that we make achievable adjustments to reconnect to natural, local methods wherever possible. I also liked that her concept of backsourcing is simple enough to have nurtured discussions in classrooms, and a grassroots movement towards supporting that independence could be very powerful. 

Additionally, I was so surprised at how easy rope making looked from the video. When fiddling every so often with the strings on my headphones, the double helices formed from the singular strand become very apparent, but I'd never made the connection between those twists and the twists of rope. It's an astonishingly simple process, and one that I think students would love to try. The Turkish lace bag seemed very similar to crochet, so I was able to appreciate the similarity in skill of different cultures. I've tried crocheting before, but do prefer knitting. That said, I was still fascinated by the technique. Finally, for the braids, I had so much fun understanding the 7 strand one! My sisters and I have frequently experimented different styles of braids growing up, but this one was certainly the most difficult. The "over 2, under 1" explanation simplified it tremendously.

 (*After a quick google search- I thought crochet had French origins due to the name, however, it seems that it very likely came from China or Arabia and spread along the Arab trade routes to the Mediterranean. Very interesting, because that's similar to how some of mathematics was spread too!!! I'm also reflecting on having initial euro-western perspectives... there's so much to unpack!)