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Students Write 'Letters To Next President'
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Published: November 8, 2008
HUDSON - Most of them won't even be eligible to vote in 2012, but eighth-graders at Hudson Middle School were as interested as anyone in the just-completed presidential election.
And not just because they had a class project related to it.
The students took part in "Letters to the Next President," a collaborative effort between the National Writing Project and Internet enterprise Google.
The National Writing Project, at the University of California, Berkeley, is a professional development network that serves teachers. Its mission is to improve student achievement by improving the teaching of writing.
It organizes many themed online writing projects using Google Docs, an online word processing and presentation editor. Google Docs lets teachers and students create, store and collaborate on compositions via secure e-mail accounts.
As the name implies, "Letters to the Next President" invited students ages 13 through 18 to write letters to the eventual winner of the 2008 presidential campaign. Because the letters were written while the campaign was still in progress, they were commentaries to whoever the next president is of what the most pressing issues are and what should be done about them.
"I thought it would be a really good way for them to talk about their concerns," said teacher Judy Walker.
She thought it would be a good addition to the way she and her students were using the campaign as the focal point of classroom activities. They have included writing biographies on all the candidates and about their positions on the issues. They had to analyze political cartoons, track the polls and compare red state-blue state breakdown in 2008 compared to 2004.
Her students were among the youngest in the country to participate in "Letters to the Next President," Walker said.
Adults might be surprised at the level of awareness these pre-teens' letters show. Perhaps more disturbing is along with awareness, it is clear they feel anxiety over the issues that face our nation and have been amplified with the election.
One of the letters that most clearly defines this anxiety was by student Christian Futterman.
"We live in a time of war, political corruption, and economic crisis. You will be expected to fix all of these problems and more," Christian writes, adding that the next president should make the economy the top priority.
"I just sat down for a minute and thought about what this country needed to improve on," Christian said on Wednesday, "That to me was the most important thing."
Class project or not, he said he regularly reads newspapers and follows what's going on in the country. It's important to see what's going on now to learn what today's adults are doing right and what they are doing wrong.
"The problems we're facing today, the kids will have to fix tomorrow," Christian said.
He said he liked having the chance to express his thoughts and have them in an online forum that could be read by anyone, even President-elect Barack Obama.
To varying degrees the students personalized their concerns; many wondered how they will be able to go to college in five years, the way things are going now. The letter that has gotten most people's attentions, Walker said, was by Courtney McCrady, who considered the war in Iraq a pressing issue.
"Why are we even there?" Courtney wrote. "Why do we spend so much money in that country, but we can't even maintain our own economy over here? I have asked these questions many times, but I seldom get an answer."
Her letter touches on all the familiar points - the erroneous "weapons of mass destruction" argument, the democracy-building argument, the cost in blood and dollars and the speculation the whole thing is really about oil. Courtney saves it until the end of her letter to mention she has a relative over there she is hoping to see again.
"My cousin told me when my grandma read it, she cried," Courtney said.
To see Christian and Courtney's letters, along with others by their classmates, visit www.letters2president.org/classes/1665-judy-walker...>.
Klint Lowry can be reached at 727-815-1067 or at klowry@suncoastnews.com
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