The first day of school

Respect by Aretha Franklin

What you want-
To tell good stories
To get people to listen
To get people to remember
To prevent embarrassing mistakes

What you need-
Challenging tasks
Independent working/learning/studying habits
Rapid feedback
High standards
A demanding teacher
A knowledge of what your weaknesses are

"Perhaps at this point you are thinking this: 'I know how to talk.  Why do I need to write?'"

The answer isn't a sentence.  The answer is a story, and I'll start my story with a thought provoking question.  A thought-provoking question is a good way to start a story if you didn't know.

The question is
"How long has mankind been using language to communicate?"

Write down a guess.   I'll wait.

(When a question is asked, it is crucial that you try to answer.  If you don't have an answer, make a guess.  If you don't understand the question, write the question down in your notebook.)

The best scientific estimates are around 100,000 years ago. 

Does anyone know when writing was invented?   (Notice that I said "invented")
The oldest writing that mankind has ever found (so far) is around 6,000 years old, and it is a small clay tablet that records how much beer was given to workers after completing some project.   They wanted to make very certain that noone was drinking more that his or her fair share. 

I am not kidding.   Google that.   

Does anyone want to know how we figured out the date for speech?
[The story of Paul Broca, and the unfortunate man who could only say "Tan"]

[After the story, the reveal]

100,000 years ago humans hadn't accomplished a whole lot. 
For the next 95,000 years we didn't improve much.

But, in the last 5,000 years, we have gone from spear fights to space flights.