To Kill A Mockingbird Letter Assignment
This letter should address one of the themes/messages you are most concerned with occurring in your life! Choose an issue that you witness everyday. Whether it concerns yourself, a friend, classmate, teacher or complete stranger, write about its affects on him/her or yourself. In your letter, be sure to include what your concern is, why it concerns you and how it affects you. The assignment is worth 50 points, so be creative and precise with your writing.
77 comments:
Dear Mr. Nold,
As I sit here in school and write this letter, the one thing that is racing through my head about WHS is social status. Whether you’re in school or not, social status is everywhere.
Parents, how does your child act when he or she is going to or coming from school? Do they show any kind of concern of not wanting to go? Or do they show sadness and relief when getting home? If so, you should ask them what’s wrong. See if you can do anything to help as well. Talk to them. Show them that you care, because this could be a sign of post depression due to where they stand in the social status in school. They may show it or may not, but being pushed away, especially by “the popular kids” can make them feel like they’re not good enough, for anything.
Everyone is made in their own special way and not being accepted by people can sometimes lead to depression or worse, suicide. When you’re not good enough for people and are always being cut down, it blows up in your face and makes you feel like you have no worth.
Opening up peoples minds to show them that this is an issue, not only in school but in the whole world, could make people change and bring some peace to this place. Just think, less suicides and more long living teens and adults; less prescriptions for depression pills and more friendships and love. Who wouldn’t want to help fix an issue that could make this world, our world, almost perfect?
Sincerely,
Tori Hillestad
Dear Mr. Nold,
I think that social status is a concern at WHS. People usually always only hang with a certain click. There is the populars, jocks, nerds, and the normals ( middle).
It is a concern because people from different groups, can sometimes be mean to other people in different groups. For example, there will be some popular girls walking down the hallway when they see someone who thinks school is the best, they will be mean, make fun of them and just not be nice people. People do this because they think they’re “cool” and because people don’t really stop them.
This doesn’t just happen at WHS, it happens all around the world. It happens at the mall, school, on the streets, and at work (sometimes). Sometimes someone will try to get into another group, but if it is a higher status, it won’t just automatically happen. It takes time and can make people really angry with you.
Sometimes people can be hurt mentally and physically trying to get into a different status group. People will make people do mean or bad things to people or objects. People can get put down everyday by someone in a higher or lower status because they seem tuff of threatens them in some kind of way.
Social status is a concern in many ways, and seen everywhere. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it is very bad... It’s a concern and needs to be fixed, and it would be a good world.
Sincerely,
Desiree Maroon
Dear Mr. Nold,
The issue I am writing about is creating social classes in school. The social status of people determines if you’re rich or poor. It determines if you’re known for starting fights, or breaking them up. It also determines if you get picked on or left alone. Social statuses are important for kids in school because they want to look good.
Kids in school develop social statuses. Some kids don’t pay attention to their social status and they get themselves given a status. Some kids like to prove themselves. They think by what they do it gains the attention of others and makes the popular.
To conclude this letter, social statuses effect our school. If we don’t look into this more it could get out of hand. I think there will always be social statuses as long as kids want themselves to look good.
Sincerely,
Dillin Wiand
Dear Mr. Nold,
My name is Austin smith, and I attend Washington high school. With everyday that passes we have to deal with concerns or problems that we have to overcome. While watching “To kill a mockingbird,” I realize the concerns they were going through. Racism was an issue throughout the movie. Not only is the movie but in our everyday life.
Walking in the halls at Washington there is still racism. If it’s a rude comment, or saying something racist it still occurs daily. Back in the day it was horrible. The blacks were so strictly ordered like they had no rights. It is crazy to think that we had different water fountains and even schools. I think that would be weird if we only had once race here at Washington. I’ve heard that Washington highs school is the most diverse high school in Sioux Falls. From how fare we have come from back in the day is unbelievable. We don’t have as much racism today as we used to. But I am not going to lie; we still deal with problems due to race. Now in the 2008 election we have our first black president. Who knows what is going to happen next.
Racism affects many people no matter how old you are. Racism affects my family because my niece is partial black. The color of your skin has no effect on who you really are. Others can also be affected on this topic. For an example a lot of students would be offended if you made a racist comment.
What racism is defined today was nothing like it used to be. I think that we are doing a great job accepting all backgrounds. Now we just have to keep doing what were doing to make our lives better each day.
Sincerely, Austin Smith
Mr. Nold
As I walk through the halls of Washington High School I see that some people aren’t accepted for the way they are. I can’t say that I don’t judge people but I see it out of others everyday. People as in the students only judge people to make themselves feel better. If someone tries to put me down I try to not listen to them. Judging people is what an everyday person does because no one can say that they haven’t done it before.
Giving someone grief about anything can affect someone tremendously. When some is getting yelled at or told off by someone that they might not like, that one person is hurt pretty bad inside. When I do that to someone, I know that I didn’t so something right. It’s never the right thing to do to somebody. Just think about how you would feel if somebody said things to you like that.
So what I’m trying to say is no ones perfect an anyway. It doesn’t matter who you are race, sex or color. People are different and we have to accept that. The world would be a different place if we were all alike. Let others be different its not right for you to judge them.
Sincerely, Taren
Dear Dr. Homan,
The concern I have is about the importance of education. There are many people who think an education isn’t important. They say that school is a waste of time and that we don’t need it. But, without school where would we be? No one would know how to read or write, we wouldn’t know about those certain things you can’t go without knowing these days, and what kind of job are you going to get without a college education.
I am going to start with the basics. I am talking about those things we learn in school that we have to know. A few examples of these are reading, writing, and simple math. If we didn’t learn how to write I couldn’t write you this important letter of concern. If we didn’t learn how to read you couldn’t read this letter. Also is there ever a day in any ones life where they don’t use some kind of math.
You won’t get very far without a college education these days. Most companies require their employees to have a college degree. The nice thing is you can just study about that one thing you want to do in life. You don’t have to study a whole range of topics in college. There are proven statistics that show that college graduates make a significantly larger salary than people who go straight into the workforce after high school. Without a college education you could be stuck making burgers and fries at McDonalds your whole life.
One thing we need to be educated in is electronics. These days almost everything is electronic. Besides talking almost all other ways of communicating are electronically. These include land line phones, cell phones, e-mail, and instant messaging. Without education we wouldn’t be able to work these things. Most people today couldn’t imagine life without a phone or computer.
As you can tell I think education is important. The basic stuff we learn in school is the stuff we use everyday. We would be no where without reading, writing, and vocabulary. Life is tough without some sort of education about electronics these days. Many times the only way to communicate is electronically. It is hard to survive on your own without a college degree. This is why I think education is important.
Sincerely,
Eric Snelling
To the students of WHS:
I’m writing to you about a concern I have at out school. Every morning I come to school I see a number of students when it’s cold outside not have, good coats, and gloves. These are things we need when it’s cold out to keep us warm. The students are probably living in poverty and this is something that can affect any of us.
Now in the U.S. a lot of people are losing their jobs. This leads to no money to buy food, good cloth and other important stuff. Some of our classmates won’t be able to afford school supplies and this could affect their grades. Also, some might be embarrassed and it could affect them emotionally around their friends. Those of us who are not in poverty needs to think of those who are struggling because that could be us tomorrow.
So, I’m asking you as students of WHS to help me start up a fundraiser for school supplies. This will help our students who are in poverty do well in school during this bad time in our country. Thanks for taking your time to read my letter. Hopefully we can take our Warrior pride and help other students that are in poverty.
Sincerely, Serkout
Dear, Mr.Obama
The state of South Dakota has many racism issues that need attention and concern me. First of all I see racism everyday of my life, when I know I shouldn’t. I see all of are different cultures split into their own groups, but the things I don’t often see is different cultures talking with other cultures. Why is it that after all these years of being free, and able to talk to whom ever you want, nothing much has changed?
I don’t understand why there is still racism around the world today. I see it everyday, I see people get their feelings hurt from it, only so someone else can feel better about themselves. I hate the fact that I see these things everyday, but there’s nothing I can do or say to someone that would change the whole worlds perspective about racism, but I wish I could. What people need to understand is we are all people no matter what size or color we are still people.
I think it is a good thing that you will be our new president. It will and probably has opened the eyes of many people to accept our different cultures. Or just help them understand that they can hate or judge whoever they want, it’s not going to change who lives in this world, so they might as well suck it up and deal with it, it’s just color. I want to thank you for listening to my thoughts and concerns about racism, and for making our world open their eyes and accept people for who they are.
Sincerely, Sarah
Dear Mr. Hisel
Racism Mr. Hisel is a growing concern of mine over the years as my eyes have been open to this growing problem. As I look back as a child I realize that I even as a young child I had been exposed to minor and slightly heartbreaking racism. Even though I did not know this thing happening to me was “Racism”, Mr. Hisel I did know… it hurt. I’m sure none of these other fellows knew they were being racist, but, were just pointing out the obvious. Now Mr. Hisel I grow more and more not in just height but wisdom of what this so called racism really is. Racism is not just a word but a big, ugly, grotesque monster that sneaks its head out of other people at times. I am not going to try to lie but I too have a monster that is “racism”, even though he is not huge he could go on a run and eat healthier every once in a while. Now Mr. Hisel I am going to express a few of my concerns on this growing family of “monsters.”
Why is one of my many questions that keep my mind on its toes at night. Mr. Hisel have you ever found yourself wondering why the world is like this? Like right now as I listen to the radio one of the phrases that sticks out is “what goes around comes back around round and round.” Is this a sign or what why is this song playing? Which leads to my point why does this thing called racism live its life? After many thoughtful nights I have concluded that racism exists because it just does. It has been on this world for thousands of years for as long as humans have been living; there has been one race of human beings that have been mistreated. Human that is the key word people seem to forget that these are people we are killing, burning, oppressing, gassing, whipping, and degrading. You tell yourself oh that race doesn’t care when I say that but how do you feel when someone is showing his/her bad, ugly, and grotesque side? They might not care but does that make it right to do it? When a man beats his family and they just take it is that right? No Mr. Hisel it will never be right no matter how you look at it. People assume racism is just life but it shouldn’t be. Racism just brings dishonor and I wonder how this is really happening. The one thing I hate more than anything though is one race saying” oh well we had it the worst I mean look at what they did to us!” No, no, no you are wrong all the way. A lot of minorities don’t see that they are not the only people that were oppressed. Everyone in the whole wide world every race, man, women, child anything is oppressed in some way. Now racism is over used a person is arrested it’s racism. Will that is their fault not anyone else’s. Stop blaming others and take responsibility for your actions. Racism is a misunderstood, overused, ugly, grotesque, creeping, and a very present here and not in your face monster.
Now Mr. Hisel here comes my closing thoughts on racism. Now that I have cooled down a big this might be a little calmer. Racism is here and I fear it will always be in this world. I like many others, wish it was not but it is and will stay in you. There will always be those people saying “you’re doing this cause I’m White, Black, Asian, Native, Mexican, Latino, African, and many others.” Maybe you can take your monster for a run or buy his some soy milk. So even though he is there he might be a bit less nagging and will leave others alone more often. Now Mr. Hisel I am done rambling about this subject and I bid you a good monster free day.
Sincerely,
Josh Barkema
Dear Mr. Benz,
How a person is perceived by others is important to many. To some, social status becomes an obsession, so much so it becomes the only thing that matters in their life. Too much emphasis has been placed on social status in today’s world. The impact of this on society has been one of judgment and negativism. This something I view as detrimental to our future. So where do we go from here?
In my opinion, we need to stop judging people by the “haves” and “have nots”. Just because some one des not have a new car or a big house does not mean that they are poor, it may no be a priority to them. Judging people by their race, religion, or gender is an issue that promotes a hierarchy within society. It emphasizes a person’s social status rather than recognizing a person inter beauty. People don’t look at what so many different people can contribute to life and society. I wish people would stop to see hat a person is really like instead of judging them by their “cover”. Differences in people make our world an amazing place!
One day our world will be equal and no one will be judged. As a nation, we need to come together and stop promoting the importance of social status. The focus of our tomorrows should be creation equality and to stop judging others by what they have and what they don’t. Let’s worry about the people not the things someone may have.
Sincerely,
Nick Benz
Dear Mr. Lorange
I’m writing to you about racism. I see racism take place everyday. It really ticks me off and makes me sad. I don’t know what people find so funny about making fun of someone’s skin color. It really doesn’t matter what color you are because you can do the same things as others. Everybody should be treated equally.
I think it’s pathetic to make fun of someone because they are a different color. People just make fun of different color people to make themselves feel better and stronger. If someone is white it doesn’t make them better then someone who is black or even purple. This is really a big issue because it affects their lives so much. It can even prevent people from getting a job.
I hope these few paragraphs show you it’s wrong to judge someone because of their color. Next time you see racism taking place, help the person out. Nobody is better than anybody else just because of their skin color of even eye color. Thank you for reading this letter and I hope it touched your heart.
Sincerely,
Mr.Gundvaldson
Dear Mrs. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin,
I am writing to you to address the importance of education in our great state of South Dakota. The state funding for education is slowly depleting. This is going to have a big impact on the future of South Dakota. The importance of education is a big deal because it is going to bring jobs to the world, success to the economy, and a better future for south dakota.
The descending amount in public school funding is affecting the elementary, middle, and high schools in South Dakota. Good education is what makes this country a whole. Our politicians, Public officals, and doctors start in public schools as children. Education is such a big deal because this world would fail without it. Education brings more entrepenuers into the work force which creates more jobs. Education also brings in the next president of a multimillion dollar business. I would be greatful if this state wide issue of insufficient funds is resolved without severe consequences. The public school system in South Dakota needs more money.
In conclusion life starts not at birth but education. Money, efficiency, and success is a big deal to the life of a rising start in the work force. So please Mrs. Herseth-Sandlin fix this problem
Sincerely,
marcus shields
Mrs.Lake-Toberrt
I, Raquel Madrigal have a very big concern on “racism”. It is one thing I see at least once a day. And usually people are racist over some childish things. You would think that people would act their age and not there shoe size, but I guess not. This is one thing that needs to be fixed before it’s taken too far.
As you might know, racism is very hurtful. And sometime it may hurt one person more than it might hurt another. I have experienced this plenty of time, because it’s like a daily thing. To me I can ignore it and walk away. Or I can react to it and say something back. But I don’t. But as soon as the wrong person says something so mean to another person. It could lead that other person to something very serious like, suicide, a fight, or something that can hurt a lot of people. The thing that’s really sad about it, is that it would most likely be over something little, because that how people here seem to act.
In conclusion I think that the staffs here at WHS are not aware of what goes on it the halls. Nor anywhere else were there are students. I don’t think they understand that one day someone is going to take it too far. And the results may not be very pretty. This needs to be fixed A.S.A.P. And thank you for taking time to read this.
Sincerely,
A student here at WHS
Raquel Madrigal
Dear Mr. Mayor,
After reading the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, many issues were brought to my attention. One of them that concerns me greatly, is poverty. While we are in our cozy homes, eating our delicious dinner as a family, there are some less fortunate that are scavenging for their only food of the day and trying to find somewhere to be sheltered from the spine-chilling wind. Poverty is a worsening issue that is caused by us becoming more concerned about ourselves than the well-being of the people around us.
He people of our city are doing many things to help those less fortunate. These include serving at the Banquet, helping at the Salvation Army and the St. Francis house. I am very glad that people would not just think of themselves but think about the others that are suffering everyday to find a meal for their family. We are fortunate to have such great citizens in our community.
In eighth grade I was in confirmation with my church. We had to do many service projects including helping to serve at the Banquet. When we were helping we saw many homeless people come through the line to eat and they were so thankful or the food they were getting, but we did not think it was very good. It shows how much one meal meant to them. I can’t imagine how it would be to have to wonder where your next meal was coming form, especially since I have had food to eat at any time I want.
Back in biblical times, the people would have just incited the homeless into their own homes, or invited the people to eat with them. In today’s society that would almost never happen I believe the problem is, we do not trust the people in our community enough to invite them into our homes and help them out. Although our community is doing a great job of getting the poverty stricken fed, there is still an issure of homelessness.
I believe that we need to help these homeless people to get back on their feet by providing transitional living quarters. If our city could fund a program that would give the people a place to sleep in safety, shower daily, and provide a service to help them rebuild their lives. This would not just be a give away but provide a stable future for their life.
If we expect to minimize poverty we need to reach out to those in need and address the things that haven’t yet been solved. Our community is doing many deeds that will help short-term, but little to address long-term needs. Poverty is a worsening issue that is caused by us becoming more concerned about ourselves than the well-being of the people around us.
Sincerely,
Molly Ervin
To Students and Staff of Washington High School:
In today’s society, many people have many differences that make them not fit in, or different. These are labels they do not deserve. Everybody has their own hobbies and opinions about what they like and don’t like to do. People should be entitled to think what they want, do what they want, or say what they want, and still be accepted into our complicated society.
My concern is accepting the differences of others. I have noticed around school many things that make people unique or different. One example of this is that people might think it is weird that other studious people enjoy reading, but then again it is not weird that a star athlete likes to play their sport. This concerns me because I don’t like to see people not being accepted into our school community just because of the things they like to do. I have not been a victim of this but I have seen many examples of this just around the halls of Washington High School. Another example is the way people look and dress. If someone dresses in something that is “not in style” they would not fit in to what society thinks they need to be wearing. You don’t know anything about a person until you talk to them, or get to know them. You can't get to know someone just by the way they dress. If your best friend came to school in an unstylish outfit you would still be friends with them because you know what they are like on the inside. People need to accept that people dare to be different because they want to. Society is so complicated that there are certain standards that a lot of people think we need to live up to. We should be able to be ourselves and be accepted for our differences. We need to accept the opinions, thoughts, actions, and other things that people choose to do.
Accepting people and their differences could really strengthen our society. Learning to accept what other people think, say, feel, and do can make us a better community as a whole. We need to stop judging people based on the little things, put aside our differences, and accept people for who they are and what they bring to make them unique to our society.
Sincerely,
Jessica M.
dievoDear Mr. Nold,
Hate, loathing, despise it all ends with fighting but it all begins with discrimination. We all have different thoughts, religion and we all believe and wear different things. So my question to you is who are we to judge people? Who are we to say you can’t believe in you god, you can’t like the person you like, and you can’t love the person you love? We all discriminate but I believe that if we want to, really want to we could end all of it. So I’m asking you for just one second to listen to me, actually listen to one of the students at WHS. I have come to notice that some of our school rules are a little prejudice.
Inside the walls of WHS you can see discrimination everywhere because EVERYONE discriminates. I think we can stop this stupid discrimination one rule at a time starting with the most common discrimination rule ever the one the states guys can not were girls clothes. I honestly think that this is the stupidest rule I have ever heard. Guys should be able to wear what they want not all of them dress like a girl just for giggles. I am a member of the GSA (gay straight alliance) here at WHS and the other small percentage of guys who wear girls clothing do so because they are transgenders and they should have the right to be what they want to be.
The other insanely stupid rule at Washington high is the rule stating that students aren’t allowed to wear spikes and chain. To me this is stupid because when I asked a teacher about this they said it was because the teachers thought it would be used as a weapon. Now tell me how could you use a spike as a weapon? Poke some one to death? I don’t think so.
Then there the rule that disallows bandannas because they are gang related. So now tell me how many little kids do you see running around in bandannas? A lot right? I don’t see your reasoning behind pretty much all of the rules that I just explained to you. So why don’t we just make it better for everyone and just end the discrimination.
Sincerely,
Shani Thomas
Dear Mr. Nold,
My name is Sarah Dunlap, I’m 16 years old. I go to Washington High School. My class just finished reading To Kill a Mocking Bird. This book arouses a concern or mine and I would like to tell you about it. If you would be willing to listen.
My concern is how we treat those around us. As I walk through the halls of Washington I constantly see people being made fun of. Both to their face and behind there back. It doesn’t really matter how there doing it, what matters is there is people getting hurt. And it needs to be stopped. It would be for the best if we could do it soon.
Isn’t their more we could be doing to prevent bulling? We have consolers that will help those being hurt. But over half of the student body doesn’t like spilling there guts to someone that they don’t know. I have friends that are being bullied. I have tried to get them to go see a consular but they refuse. A lot of teachers are oblivious to what’s happening to the student body. They think they are doing there best to stop it but its happening right in front of them.
We should have more assemblies about ‘what to do you’re being bullied’ or ‘walking in someone else’s shoes’. It could even be something as cheesy as ‘stop the bulling it hurts’. Who cares what it’s called? We need to teach the teachers how to tell when bulling is a problem, they need to learn to be more aware. Maybe you could have a teacher meeting someday that we don’t have school. I don’t know ill leave that one to you. We could also teach the students how to better deal with the bulling. We need to do something to help those being hurt.
Thank you for taking the time to hear a concerned student out. I would just like to make the bullies walk in the innocents shoes. This is a big problem in the world. We can change it one school at a time.
Sincerely,
Sarah Dunlap
Dear, Mr. Nold
The things that I see in our school are very diverse students. Some people in our school are in poverty, poor, and working hard. Just to make sure they have a home to live in. The kids have to be affected by this. So they mess around in school, because they don’t have a good role model or hard working parents that can’t watch them. So for some to understand others they need to be put in the situation or their shoes.
At our school there are people that don’t understand others. They don’t know what those people go through day to day. The only way to understand how they live is to switch spots, so some of the upper classman know what they are doing when they make fun of the lower classman. Some of the other classman do to lower classman are sometimes not okay. What kids do when there making fun of others for what they like to do and dress like.
So far the statement that I am trying to get through to you is that we do have problems with people not understanding others problems. I don’t know what we can ever do to solve it, yet there is one solution; that is putting them in someone else’s shoes.
Sincerely, Forrest Veldhuizen
Dear Mr. President/Elect Barack Obama,
My English II class has just finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I have a concern, and the concern I have is the Poverty, Which is still a major conflict/problem in the U.S and other country’s. In Fact, 14% of Americans are living below the poverty line. Even thought the U.S is the richest nation in the world we have lots of poor people that can’t afford basic needs.
Do you know if the kid you walk next to in the hall way is poor? Or if the kid next to you in biology is sleeping at a shelter home because he/she has no where to stay? .The Fact of the matter is Poverty is everywhere and it is a problem that needs to be solved. Many people like to scowl at the poor and blame them for being poor and that it is there fault. That is not always true though; most people are born poor and cannot do anything about it but get an education. But there is a problem with going thru that path.
The price of College is extremely high and for some bright students going to college is impossible because they just can’t afford it. Even with a few scholarships going to college is a tall task with prices so high. Some people in the U.S don’t worry about going to college because the have to worry about other things like, What there going to eat tomorrow and if they even get food how are they going to get it.
The leaders of this world need to stop what there doing and grasp this situation by there hands and show us why they deserve to be presidents and kings.
Sincerely, Yohanes Belay
Dear. Reader
Why is there so much racism and discrimination in our society? I’ve never understood why there is so much in our lives today. There is always discrimination in our towards all kinds of people. In my eyes every man, woman and child is equal and should receive the same privileges and opportunities. Nobody should be judged by the color of their skin or the way they choose to live their lives.
There is discrimination and racism everywhere. In school, at work, in public no matter where you go there is bound to be. We can never seem to stop it, sadly. No matter who you are there is prejudice against you. If an African American man applies for the same job as a white man the African American man may not be treated the same way as the white man and may not be given an equal opportunity.
Sadly, we may never be able to completely remove racism from our society. It will sadly always be a part of our world and the way we live our lives. I believe it is a problem that we should try our best to fix. If I could remove all of the hate and discrimination from our world I would.
Jordan
Dear Mrs. Guetter,
The importance of education has been a huge impact on my life, and it will continue to be for several more years. It has also affected many other peoples’ lives. How well teens and young adults do in school pretty much determines what their lives may be like as adults in the real world. This is what concerns me the most, because if I do poorly in school, my future in the workforce could possibly be affected negatively even though I might be just as capable, or even better, than someone else in that same area/career. It does not seem right that someone’s education may get them a job over someone’s experience.
High school is an important part of any teen’s life. Those years oftentimes are remembered by adults as some of the best times, as well as the worst times of their lives. During high school, most teens get their first job, learn to drive, experience some freedom, and have their first major relationship. Those first-time experiences are fun, and sometimes that interferes with homework; ultimately affecting grades. Unfortunately there are times that the social aspects of high school become more important than the education. However, education is more important because it becomes a larger part of the teen’s future. It is well known that a high school education, followed by a college education, results in better employment and higher paying salaries. However, many teens are unable to afford an education, as the costs are so high. Therefore, it is very important to work hard while in high school to achieve good grades with the hopes of receiving scholarships. It seems difficult at times for teens to understand that importance because they believe that their work experience from their first job will be enough to get them where they want to be in life, but that is not always true.
An education is extremely important, and teens need to realize this by the time they begin high school. They still need to enjoy their high school years, but they also need to realize that if they do not put forth everything during their high school years, they might not be as successful when they enter the workforce as an adult. Understanding the importance of education and the impact it has on an individual’s future is significant to every young person’s life.
Sincerely,
Dillon Schenkel
Dear Mrs. Gutter
To me education is a very important thing. Everyone should have an education through high school at least. I you have ever seen people working at fast food places or working in a factory, and ask them if they graduated, most will say no. that is something that can be changed and eventually will. Education is important to get through life.
Most high school kids will plan to go to college and graduate. There are some who chose not to go to college and there are some who can’t. The people who can’t go, whether its money or they have to stay and support family, are the biggest concerns. Being a high school student, the pressure of having to work to feed there family shouldn’t happen. People don’t understand how much pressure is put on teenage kids.
If you want get any where in life you have to work. Having an education gives you pride and respect. If a person plans to have a family they need to support them. You can’t risk dropping out of high school and not having a job to live. Gradually things are getting better like raising the drop out age to 18 years old. Education is important to get through life.
Sincerely, Jon
Dear Mr. Bob,
When Tom Robinson was judged because of the color of his skin, that was wrong. No one has the right to judge anyone else. Even if they have different colored skin, different hair, don’t wear brand name clothes every day. We shouldn’t judge other people, because we all know how it feels to be judged. Every person on this earth has been judged. All people go through judgment everyday, so why do we do it to others?
Do you feel the same way? We are constantly going through racism and prejudice every single day. All for nothing. I know I see it every day, no matter where I am or who I am with. Granted it’s not as bad as it used to be, like in the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird, but its bad enough. For example, one day a couple of years ago I was made fun of for wanting to hang out with a couple of my African American friends. That is sad to see and it hurt them just as much as it hurt me.
So why do we do it? To make ourselves feel better? I’m not trying to be a hypocrite, because I know I am guilty of judgment also. At least I know what I am doing wrong and I am trying to change it. Like I said before, all people judge, but don’t like to be judged in return. You would think we would try harder to fix the problem with judgment.
Sincerely,
Hailee Hartman
Dear Mayor Munson,
I don’t know if you have realized in the last few years, but our community is filled diversity. This is a good thing. A problem that’s I have encountered with this is that there is a whole lot of racism going on in and out of our schools. Now you being the mayor of Sioux Falls, need to fix this.
It’s only the second year I have attended Washington High School. In these two years I have seen many, many accounts of racism. People are no longer referred to by their names, but what race they are. I would say about 60 % of the things I hear in the hallway are negative things referring to people of another race.
The only solution I can think of to solve this problem would be to come up with more diverse classes. But I know that you being the mayor can think of someway to fix this. All I’m saying is you’re the mayor. Its in your job description to run this town the right way. You need to figure out a way to fix this problem. I would just like to thank you for your time, and say that I hope I have influenced you to take affect on this growing problem in Sioux Falls.
Sincerely, Brandon
Dear People,
For those about to read this letter about racism. I will be talking about the racism in, “To Kill a Mocking Bird.” Also how racism concerns others. Maybe racism doesn’t affect others at all. But you know it will affect at least some people.
I believe there was way too much racism back in the 30’s. There was mostly racism against African Americans. Just because of skin color, there was so much racism, or hatred toward African Americans. But racism plays a main part of, “To Kill a Mocking Bird.”
The effects of racism got Tom convicted. Even with Atticus’s proof. Tom was still convicted guilty. So racism has big effects. Racism has big effects in any situation.
So like I said before, how racism was so big back in the 30’s. Racism might look small to a lot people. But it is a big deal to some people. It can have huge effects, just like how Tom Robinson was killed. I do not think racism is as big as it used to be. But we still have racism today.
Sincerely, Tyler Morrison
Dear Mr. Nold
I believe that education is very important. I think that kids should not be able to drop out of high school. I think everyone should stay in school until they graduate. Then you can decide whether you want more school or not. Everyone should at least have a high school diploma. I know that school isn’t for everyone, but if everyone had at least a high school education, there would be fewer jobs-less people.
If everybody had a high school diploma, we would have less people without jobs. We could teach a little more in high school so people could live with just a diploma. Most businesses don’t higher people who don’t have a high school diploma. People would have a chance to get good jobs and have a successful life if they stay in school. All the people in my life have gone through high school and college. Getting an education really helps you in the future.
So in conclusion, I think that if we make it so that kids can’t drop out of school, we will have more people for jobs and smart people in our community. Futures of everyone would be brighter. Education is the key to a successful future.
Sincerely,
Sami
Dear Mr. Nold
The problem I am here to discuss a serious issue here at Washington. The problem is the parking lot. Yes the size of the parking lot is big enough to accommodate the large student body at Washington. But I feel that some people should not be allowed to drive. I’m not pointing any fingers (freshmen) but recently I have notice that everyday it seems like there is an accident.
Now it isn’t due to bad driving most of the time. But it is a cause of students just not paying attention. A lot of the accidents I see are rear ends or the kid that is trying to cut the whole line to the front and now being able to stop in time. I have even seen the same girl get hit by the same kid twice this year. These accidents are all a cause of overcrowding. Not only does it damage our cars it is in a parking lot so often times there is nothing we can do about in terms of insurance. If we eliminate the freshmen drivers this will open up room for the other motorist to get out.
In conclusion I believe that there will be a lot less accidents if we just eliminate a few of the drivers. Sense most freshmen can’t drive anyways why not just not let them all drive in general. This will let other students get out of the parking lot faster and without collision. Making not only students safer but also keeping the parents happy that have to pay for these accidents.
Dear Mr. Nold,
We just finished reading to kill a mockingbird. It’s a good book and it has a lot of racism in it and we got an assignment to write about an issue and I picked this one. “Racism”
I think racism is a big part of the world because you see it. Maybe not everyday but you see it. I think it’s very wrong. I mean I don’t care what anyone thinks or if you are racist. Just keep it to yourself though.
Plus some people just are racist just to get attention. Others are because there parents are or grandparents are. And if it’s because of one of those reasons you could look from the other side of things. This makes people very mad and very sad. Another reason is pure pressure. Some kids act racist just because their friends do. Well never let your friends control you and tell you what you have to do.
You shouldn’t make fun of people who are different from you. That’s pathetic if you make fun of them for something they can’t change especially. But if you are pathetic and must make fun of them just do it in public don’t try to make them feel bad.
You see it almost everyday “Racism”. It’s a big problem in the world. Lets fix it together and make the world a whole lot better place. Thank you.
Dear Mr. Nold,
We just finished reading to kill a mockingbird. It’s a good book and it has a lot of racism in it and we got an assignment to write about an issue and I picked this one. “Racism”
I think racism is a big part of the world because you see it. Maybe not everyday but you see it. I think it’s very wrong. I mean I don’t care what anyone thinks or if you are racist. Just keep it to yourself though.
Plus some people just are racist just to get attention. Others are because there parents are or grandparents are. And if it’s because of one of those reasons you could look from the other side of things. This makes people very mad and very sad. Another reason is pure pressure. Some kids act racist just because their friends do. Well never let your friends control you and tell you what you have to do.
You shouldn’t make fun of people who are different from you. That’s pathetic if you make fun of them for something they can’t change especially. But if you are pathetic and must make fun of them just do it in public don’t try to make them feel bad.
You see it almost everyday “Racism”. It’s a big problem in the world. Lets fix it together and make the world a whole lot better place. Thank you.
To whom ever it may Corcern:
My class and I just got done reading the book To Kill a Mockingbird. I would like to discuss with a concern of mine that I still see in the world today. This is very sad, because I thought we were over racism. But why do we still have racism in the world today? Here are my opinions on the issue at hand.
There people that are still racist to this day and I don’t really understand why. You shouldn’t judge people on what skin color they are or how rich they are. Also, you should learn to accept people for who they really are and not who they should to you. I think that people are still racist because they want to make themselves seem higher up than they really are. They do it because that’s what they’re friends are doing. But you should be you own person and copy somebody else. Finally, you should stand p for what you think is right and do what you think is right.
In conclusion, I hope you really took my message to heart. Think about how others feel and how you would feel. What if somebody was racist to you? How would you feel? I hope you do an act of kindness and try to stop racism in your school.
Sincerely, makara wencl
Dear Mrs. Dolan,
In my opinion I think that it’s wrong that people are judged everyday by others. It’s wrong that just by looking at someone or not liking what they did, you automatically assume their weird, psycho, or whatever. Talking about how someone looks or how they act doesn’t make you look good; it just makes you look immature, and pathetic. When you’re judging others before getting to know them, you’re also getting judged back. My concern is that before you judge someone you should put yourself in their shoes because it’s wrong and sad that they are judge because of who they are, how they act, etc.
It’s not fair that people are constantly judging others because of how they live their life. It affects me when I am judged before someone walks in my shoes because it hurts my feelings, and makes me feel like I don’t fit in. Also when judging someone most don’t know what that person is going through or why they’re like that. When anyone close to me is judged I get really defensive knowing that my friends, or family are getting judged because they’re different. Most people have a reason why they like they do we just have to learn to accept them for who they are.
When judging others before putting yourself in their shoes you should also look at yourself first. Everyone should get the chance to show everyone who they are without getting their feelings hurt, or getting made fun of. Also try getting to know the person first before judging them, who knows you guys might even become really good friends. You never know what a person goes through, maybe their religion requires that they act or dress a certain way. In conclusion, the main point is that you should always walk a mile in someone else’s shoes before making a judgment base upon what they look like, who they are, or how they act.
Dear Ms. Daggitt
I’m concerned with the prejudice that has been going around the halls of WHS. I have not heard only prejudice between the races but also against sexual orientation, weight, and grade. Hi my name is Quinn Abbas and I am writing this letter hopefully to inspire some change in this school.
I am mainly concerned with this issue not for myself but for the younger kids in this school. I think it would be a shame if the underclassmen graduate for WHS learning only how to hate each other. There are many hateful words that I hear said to each other some of which being; gay, queer, fag, nigger, and many other names that should never be used in a hatful manner.
My wish is that this letter will change this school even if only a little bit. I don’t think it is wise that children go though there daily lives and see hate all around them. I think that this will only make them be hatful out of school to. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Quinn Abbas
Dear readers,
I am here to write about a topic from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. One major topic I found really important was the injustice and racism that was shown towards Tom Robinson. This man was completely innocent but was accused and convicted of taking advantage of another character, Mayella Ewell. The reason for this injustice was mainly because of his skin color. If he would’ve had plainer skin then maybe he would have won his case. Many people go through the toughness of racism and injustice. I, for one, am one of those people who were a victim of racism.
Tom Robinson was a really nice man who just so happen to have had darker skin, because of that he was treated badly. The racism was shown roughly to him by Bob Ewell. Mayella on the other hand grew feelings for him. She lost control and tried to express those feelings to Tom then felt guilty for liking him just because he’s different. She tried to make an attempt at permanently erase him from her, so, henceforth the accusation of rape. Tom was accused and had to go through trial. Mr. Atticus Finch was to be his representative. Atticus knew that he was one of the few who were able to pull the truth out from the Ewells in what had really happened on that day that the incident on Mayella was done. Mayella tried to tell what she said what happened to the people of the jury.
Why go through so much trouble in attempt to erase the matter instead of just facing it like the grown woman she was supposed to be? The jury did convict Tom of being guilty but was that really justice? The real justice would have been to make him innocent. Tom never did anything wrong. He was just being who he was, a very nice man who would do anything without receiving a reward for it. If the trial had truly been fair then Tom would have not been convicted. If the trial was truly there to have “justice” then he would have been living till the end of the book and not “accidentally” shot seventeen times while attempting to run away.
The injustice of this book was cruel on many beliefs. Mayella got away with lying, and Bob Ewell was let free for beating his daughter. Atticus did try to restore justice by appealing the case but apparently wasn’t able to since Tom didn’t live till the appeal case could be summoned. I’ve even thought about what could have happened if the case had involved someone else… Like what if Atticus was the one being convicted or if Boo Radley had come out for no apparent reason? Would the trial have gone differently? Would one of those men been convicted? The most important question for me would be, why make Tom Robinson be convicted and die instead of living till the appeal was closed? I’ve already thought about the answer for that question and have yet to figure out the other answers myself.
So in conclusion the injustice in this novel was portrayed in a matter that manages to catch my eye in the end, Tom being convicted and the Ewells having their way. Yet, the justice might have been served when Boo Radley had saved the children and gotten rid of Bob Ewell. Was that the justice in the book, or was justice never served?
Sincerely,
Chrissy Satibanchong
Dear Mr. Tim Johnson:
I have one big concern in our community. My concern is about poverty issue in Sioux Falls. Although; we don’t have much poverty in our city, as there is in other bigger cities. This is in issue we still need to address.
I have ideas that may help with this issue. One thing we could do is have more shelters, so that families don’t have to sleep on the streets; especially during the winter season, when the weather is very cold. Also more banquets would help many hungry people. Many of these people are starving everyday, and are on the streets begging for money, just so they could eat. All of these ideas I suggested, can help improve this issue. One idea though that could help not only the homeless, but all the low-income families, is education. With college prices so high, many people can not afford to go. Colleges need to decrease their prices, so everybody can afford to go. With education comes a good job, therefore; they wouldn’t be living in poverty.
As a community, we do a lot to help the unfortunates; like giving out presents to little kids during Christmas. Also we have food drives. But no matter what we do; there is still many hungry, homeless people in our city. I’m not expecting a dramatic and quick change. But if we all could slowly make changes, eventually we could make our have a better our city. So there will no longer be starving children and homeless people; but we would have well educated kids. And one day the poor would have a place to call home
Dear Mr. Nold,
I am doing a paper on racism and I think it is very wrong in lots of ways. Racism is still around in the world and I think there is still some racist people at the school. I think most of the racism is against Hispanics and African Americans. It happens with them because, they aren’t white. Most of the racist people are white.
Some affects that might happen with racism is people get offended and hurt. Sometimes I feel sorry for the Hispanics and African Americans, just because they get tormented by the white people just cause they aren’t white. I don’t know if I know any racist people at the school, but I do know there are some. Sometimes there is death with racism. I don’t know if African Americans are racist to Hispanics, or if Hispanics are racist to African Americans.
In conclusion, I am writing about racism and how it is everywhere in the world. It is in schools and a lot of public places. It can be in your own house or apartment or just anywhere there are different races or people. Racism is very bad for everyone and it offends lots of people that had nothing to do with you. Most of racism happens with people that don’t have the same skin color as you do.
Sincerely,
Steven Haeffner
Dear Ms. Anderson:
Over the past years of middle school and high school, I’ve noticed segregation has been an issue in the district.
When I walk down the hallways of WHS I notice that everyone is, “placed” in specific groups, both racially and interest wise. When I came into high school my parents always told me there is no such thing as cliques, but apparently they were wrong. The thing I find hard to believe is people can’t choose their cliques they’re placed by others! If you tryout for plays or show choir, or play an instrument, you have officially become a fine arts person other wise known as cwingers at WHS. Football players sit at a specific table every morning. Goths are in the corner doing who knows what because no one will look at them because they have been permanently labeled freaks! All of this segregation can also lead to other issues like racism, once when I walked down the hallway, I saw a group of Hispanics on one side of the hall and a group of causations on the other side, and both groups where blocking the hallway, and a staff member walked by and asked the group of Hispanics to move but not the group of causations. It truly bothers me that you can take an issue and tern it into two.
Segregation isn’t as bad as it was in the 1930’s but let’s face it, it hasn’t disappeared! When I come to school, I come to learn, not to be labeled. I believe it’s time we drop segregation cold turkey and start to integrate!
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Sara. I am a sophomore at Washington High School. I have one big concern with our community today and that is inequality. Please listen to my concerns on why.
Inequality is one of the highest issues on my list of things we need to deal with in the U.S. this is because famous people think that they can do whatever they want. You always hear either in the paper or on the news that s famous person has gotten a Dui and in this country we are suppose to go to jail when we get a Dui. The word “suppose” in this case is a very big word. Famous people don’t have to do anything they will go to jail for about a day or maybe a week at the most and then they are set free like nothing even happened to them and that everything is fine and its not! When the average person gets a Dui in the U.S they have to go to court and get charged with it and get locked up for months or even years in some cases. This is a very unequal issue that we deal with and hear about on occasion and never goes away but keeps coming back. This is a very unequal topic; famous people think just because they are famous they should be treated on a higher standard then the average person would be treated. Meaning they think that because they have all they money in the world and all the fame that they should be treated with more respect then the average person would get treated in this situation.
In conclusion famous people should have to do what the average person goes through when getting a Dui. They shouldn’t be able to just say ‘o im sorry judge’ and then every things fine after that and they don’t have to worry about it anymore. They should have to stand up and admit what they did was wrong and spend there time in jail like the rest of us have to do. They should always be treated like the average person would get treated in the U.S.
Dear Mrs Gutter,
I’m here to talk to you about how conformities in a society can truly be wrong. What’s accepted may not always be right. The beliefs and morals from society and people in generally have an influence in our lives. They usually tell us what’s accepted, like what clothes to wear, what to do in the everyday decision or in certain situations we may face.
All of us grow up with different morals, and beliefs, and as we grow up we have to make the decision of whether to follow the crowd or break free from conformities that are placed upon us.
The mentality of how certain situations should be handled may not always be the best ways to go on about. One example is, Mayella she let her desire for wanting more then she could really handle get to her. So ashamed of her desire for a color man such as Tom Robison, she decides to turn the tables around. She accused Tom R of trying to rape, her way of processing the situation that she herself created, was a poor choice.
She let the beliefs and morals from her father influence her. It was not all her faults though the way society carried itself back in the 30’s was very oppressive and conservative in beliefs and morals. Sadly this system was not the best; it condemned men, women, and children to live in fear.
In conclusion we must break away from that oppressive system by standing up for what we believe, and not let others think for us. Just like Miss Maudie, Atticus, and Scout.We must make our own choices. Miss Maudie said they were just taking baby steps but it was good enough that it would take them to the civil rights of the 60’s. It only takes one person to break away from the belief system of today’s society.
Sincerely,
Deanna
Dear Pam Homan,
The letter I will be writing is focused primarily on racism and the problems associated with it that I have seen in real life, and have read in, “To Kill a Mocking Bird”. From this topic I have gathered three main issues, the first being, it puts others down, the second, it creates war and controversy, and the last issue being, it makes our society look horrible. The remainder of my letter will give an in-depth explanation of my topic and the problems with it.
My first issue will be on how racism puts others down. I chose this topic because really, that’s why racism was created, it’s just a way of making others feel bad so that the other person will feel better about themselves. It also makes that person feel bad because there’s nothing they can do about their race, so in return of being called nasty names, they also feel hopeless. In the story, you could almost feel Tom Robinson’s sadness when mentioned of his race and I’m sure all people, subjected to this type of punishment feel as sad as Tom Robinson did. I think that we should exclude all negative talk of a person’s race, so everyone can live peacefully.
For my second issue, I chose that racism creates war and controversy. I chose this topic because racism, especially over the last few decades, has created wars between people, and has also killed thousands, maybe even millions, of people on both sides of the controversy. For instance, in the story you could see how tense the atmosphere got when talk of Negroes arose, and you could tell that when talk of Tom Robinson raping Mayella Ewell came up, people were ready to kill Tom the first chance they got. A real life example of this subject could be Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who had done very many speeches on banishing racism and to live in peace and harmony with white men and women, but in the end racism had prevailed and he was shot and killed. So if racism was banished we would see a lot more people walking around today, just enjoying themselves and life.
Lastly, I will bring up my third topic, which covers how racism makes our society look terrible. I wanted to include this topic because I believe that people should open their eyes to see that racism really does make our society look dreadful. If you ever take a look at an old biographical movie, you can see that the places and people who live in a town with racism look nasty and unappealing, with all of the signs with profanity an them and the hate in a persons eyes when they see a colored person just sickens me. In the book you can see this hate clearly, especially with Bob Ewell, who almost killed two kids because their father defended a Negro. I believe that we should get rid of racism to make our society a positive and appealing one.
In conclusion, I believe that three problems associated with racism are: it puts others down, cause wars and controversy, and it makes our society look positively dreadful. I also believe that if we abolished these issues we would have a positive, healthy, and happy society in which we could live in.
Sincerely,
Levi Wager
Dear Mr. Nold,
I am writing to you because I am worried about some of your students. Other students are prejudging them and putting them down. This mostly happens in the hall before and after school or in-between classes. They aren’t taking time to get to know who they really are, or what kind of life they live. Instead they just look at them and think they know everything about they’re life.
This can affect your students greatly and can cause drama, even fights in our school. I think you should consider making a plan to help overcome this habit of many of your students. One way you could do this is pair up some of the students who don’t know anything about each other and assign them a task they have to accomplish by working together. Therefore your students will get to know more about each other, and get to know them on a more personal level. An advantage to this might be that some of your students make more friends and get along with others better.
I think our school would be a better and more respectful place, fewer students would have problems with bullies, fighting and drama. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Jensen
Principal Nold,
The following letter is to bring to attention that prejudice is wrong and can be seen everyday in the world and especially in school. It seems that almost everybody judges people based on their outside appearance. Just because someone looks a certain way, doesn’t mean you should make biases or dislike them for that. You should always look deeper than the surface, and see what a person is really like. I am pretty certain that everyone has pre-judged someone before, so I write this letter to discourage that and to make people think about how they treat or think about people that they don’t even know.
When someone takes time to get to know a person instead of just being narrow minded, both people benefit. They could end up being really good friends. Prejudice can also be very hurtful when someone actually verbally makes mean comments toward the person. Sometimes people that might be discriminated against may have a low self-esteem in the first place, and a few hurtful comments can only make things worse. We need to watch what we say around people that look or act different especially when they can’t do anything about it. However, this is not to say that we have to accept immoral lifestyles or choices that people make.
I hope that this has caused people to consider the impact that prejudice can have. A person’s appearance can sometimes be misleading. Everybody should remember that all people are in fact human and they should be treated appropriately. I personally pre-judge people all the time and it probably costs me. I could be missing out on meeting some unique and cool people.
Sincerely,
Scott S.
Mrs.Guetter
I'm writing this letter to you about pre-judgment. There is a lot if judging that happens in the story. Personally I don't think its right to judge people with out really knowing them. I think that people should wait and get to know one another before judging them.
In my school I see kids judging one another everyday. I can just walk down the hall way and here kids saying stuff like he’s so weird, or his shirt is gay and stuff like that. In the story people judge Tom with out even knowing him. My opinion is that Tom is a good hard working person. People in this book also judge Boo Radley. In the end of the story their thoughts about Boo change. They find out that he’s really a good person.
I don’t think its right to judge people before you know them. Maybe someone you think is really funny looking will turn out to be your best friend someday. It’s not right to say mean things about people when you’ve never even met them before. Everyone deserves a chance, so give them one.
Sincerely,
Josh Clark
Dear Mr. Nold
I just got done with “To Kill a Mockingbird.” When my class started the book, I thought it was going to be boring. It turns out that it wasn’t that bad. Although it is not one of my favorite books. We are supposed to right a letter to someone about a theme of the book, and I chose judging others that you don’t even know, or that you do know. I see judging in our school everyday, and I’m pretty sure you do too.
Some things I’ve seen is, judging people by the way the look, or dress. For example, in the book aunt Alexandra was judging Scout by the way she dresses. She dresses like a tomboy, wearing overalls, and a t-shirt, she doesn’t wear a dress like her aunt wants her too. Another example would be here at WHS, the emos. They dress differently than us. Everyone is different though and they have the right to dress the way they do. Another thing I have noticed is name calling. My brother calls me names all the time, so does my little sister. I’m even guilty of calling them names. We don’t care because we are so use to it. In the book, whites were calling blacks names, but name calling from siblings is nothing. Calling black people names, by someone they don’t even know, will most likely hurt their feelings.
Those are something’s that I realized about judging. Judging people by their clothes, look, or hair, doesn’t mean they are mean or have problems. All it means is that they just might need a friend, and you might be the friend they are looking for. They are just people like you and me. Name calling is another thing that happens not just at WHS, but everywhere. When we call someone names and don’t realize it, that someone could get hurt a lot. In the book, white people called Tom a name, and he feels really bad. If you call someone a name, they might take it personal, and come back at you, and start a fight, just because of one little word. So think twice before calling someone a name.
Sincerely,
Brooke Trottman
Dear Dr. Seuss
As I have grown older from my childhood innocence and have read the book to kill a mocking bird I have noticed a lot of mistreatment and inaccurate judgments on people. Now I am not saying I am perfect and don’t judge people but I don’t do it to the intensity as sourtion other would. Every body judges people and every body gets judged based on there actions, looks, color of there skin, style, etc. now with that being said I am going to address this problem by tell you some incidents that I see almost everyday while walking down the halls at my school.
To start out with, this is something I see pretty much every day. I’ll be walking down the halls to my sixth period class and I will see this group of immigrants that moved here from Africa. Now they will be standing in the hall talking in there language, laughing loudly, picking on each other you know just having fun at school trying to make the best of it and I hear somebody say something like “stupid ass African’s” or something along the lines of calling them stupid dumb, or retarded. Although some may be not so smart but I know that some of them are pretty smart for people that haven’t lived in this country all that long. I hear a lot of judgment and rude remarks for both sides though. The nonwhite community says that all white people are the same and vise versa.
People all around are always judging and mistreating each other. Black, white, Hispanic, Indian, native, Asian, and other are always throughing out racial terms and judging other and most likely will never stop and it is just something we are going to have to deal with. Those words should just be ignored, don’t let the get to you people just say them to make them selves feel better. They do it because they are insecure about them selves and need somebody to pick on. Although these words are hurtful don’t let them get to you!
naDear Mrs. Emanuel,
Knowing that you have been at Washington for awhile now, I’m sure you know Washington high school is very big in diversity. With that being said I just wanted to bring to you attention that the halls of whs, there has been a lot of conversing and enormous amount of treatment under the law.
My friends and I have witnessed things from name calling by students and staff, to fights in the hallways and commons. I think that some thing need to done about it. I think that the school should make a system of some sort that will eliminate the unnecessary actions or negative talk. Whs is an astounding school, and we don’t need those unnecessary actions or put downs to bring down our great pride for our school.
“Sticks and stones may brake my bones but words can never hurt me’’, who ever thought of this quote must have not been made fun of or been teased about something because it dose hurt, that’s why we may have suicides or depression. Whs is a great school and I don’t want to see it go down as a disrespectful school. Thanks for your time!
Dear Heck Tate,
There is a big issue about mistreatment. The way people mistreat others nowadays is almost as bad a when America had slaves. This issue needs to be resolved. The mistreatment of others is the affect of the people who were mistreated or they mistreat themselves. Mistreatment brings people down. We need to help people and bring them up so they can succeed. This issue can be resolved with your help and the help of everyone else.
Normally when we see a person who looks not very clean or has poor hygiene we tend to misjudge and mistreat them because of the way they look. The usual comments to these types of people are, “you stink, or go take a bath.” This mistreatment just brings them down because they don’t have what you do. They may think they have accomplished a lot in their life and now we just made them feel like nothing. But the people responsible for mistreating of others are mad at themselves because they were once mistreated or misjudged. All of the misjudging and mistreatment needs to come to a stop. I have been a victim of mistreatment. When I was 5 years old I was at day care and my friend Bobby was being picked up by his mom. I was waving good-bye to him on the jungle gym. But then this boy named Eli pushed me off the jungle gym and I had fallen face first on the parallel bars. I had hit my ribs and my nose against the parallel bars I couldn’t move. I had over heard him saying that I deserved to be in my place. I didn’t know it then but I know now that I was mistreated by someone that did not like me. After that experience with Eli I never wanted to go back to day care or even do anything. To connect it with To Kill a Mocking Bird Mr. Ewell had mistreated Mayella when he saw her on Tom Robinson. He was furious and had beaten as a result of his anger. Miss Mayella was badly beaten and was afraid to ever do anything again because she knew the outcome. Mayella and I have that incident of our lives in common.
Mistreatment is a cruel act of violence and anger. No one should have to live with another person constantly bringing them down because he/she is different. The mistreatment can stop and will cease to exist. With everyone’s help to try and stop this unfair way of life we can overcome the mistreatment of this society. To stop mistreatment we need to think of everyone equal. This issue can and will be resolved with your help and the help of others.
Sincerely,
Rasheena Willson
Dear God,
Attention readers! In this story I have altered the names of people in terms of respect. The story is true and I hope you enjoy!
My name is Les Brown; I live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and attend Washington High as a junior. For 17 unbelievable years, I’ve noticed and have been apart of, the wrongful judging of people. My grandpa always told me I would never be judged in Heaven, that’s why I’m writing you. Why do we judge each other in harmful ways? I am one of the billions, tired of being criticized, judged, and ridiculed, by those who don’t know me!
One particular moment in my life, changed my everyday living forever. My 8th grade gym teacher Mr. Mo White started a little rumor about me. He put the word out that I smoked pot, sold drugs, and was gang affiliated. My friend’s began questioning me, my girlfriend and her parents lost trust in me, and I was almost arrested; for nothing! It led to the end of my relationship, the loss of old friends, and it’s followed me into high school.
People still believe the rumor started by my pal Mr. White. Like the parents of a group of friends of mine. My coach almost cut me from my defending state champion basketball team, but I passed a drug test. The information put out by Mr. White has wound up on my police record, and I fear it will come back to haunt me yet again in the future. I am not affiliated with gangs and I don’t sell drugs. I’m the captain of my traveling basketball team and I can run to Brandon and back again. Does that sound like the person Mr. White made me out to be?
Mr. White and I never got along; I have reason to believe he hates me. He says he only said what he said because he heard it from somebody else. I remember my dad almost went to Mr. White’s house to start a fight, I so wish he did. I play basketball for my uncle’s traveling team; we all take drug tests before and sometimes during the season. At 5’8” and 155lbs, I’m the smallest person on the team, although I do have the biggest mouth. I’m the leading scorer on our team, averaging 18 points per game this year.
Yes, I am bragging, I love to. But my point is, do I sound like a pot smoking, drug dealing, gang banger? I don’t think so. A quote from the movie Transformers says, “Humans are a mean and primitive race.” I feel that quote is right, physically, verbally, and mentally. We all fight, judge people, call people names, and start wars. I want to know why…?
Yours Truly
The Pot Smoking, Drug Dealing, Gang Banger
Dear Mr.Nold,
First of all I would like to point out that our school is very big and diverse. If we just take a look at one class there will at least be five or six different kinds of race. I think it’s pretty cool. Well what im trying to say is that even though we are so diverse we still have a lot of problems with racism or just people not getting along because they are different.
My concern is the things could get out of hand then it will be too late because either someone could get hurt badly or god forbid die. I think we need to do something so people would get along better. No matter what race or skin color we need to make people realize that we are all people, we all have feelings and that we are all the same on the inside. Don’t ever judge a book by its cover you never know it could be really good when u start reading it.
We need to get the word out that we should not judge a person by how they look or what kind of clothes they wear. We need to think before we act, put yourself in the other person’s shoes before you judge they for who they are.
If we get enough people to believe in what Im talking about we could make a huge, difference in society and this school will be a better place to live, laugh, love, and grow!!
Sincerely,
Irina Manuylo
Mr. Nold,
I’ve been noticing a serious problem that keeps occurring in the school. It is coming from the students of the school and being directed toward them as well. It seems to have reached a point where something needs to be done; so I’m sending you this letter so you can put a stop to it. This concern that I’m having is the students pre-judging one another and doing it just to hurt someone else. If this problem is not stopped soon it could really get out of hand.
What I’ve seen here in the school is the students are talking about other students behind their back. The thing is the students making the remarks don’t even know the people they’re talking about. They just make false statements about one another just to make themselves feel better but the never think of the other person’s feelings. It’s hard to tell when it’s happening to because if the person making fun of the other person meet in the hall they seem to act nice to them. It’s when the walk away when one starts to criticize the other and gossiping. Then a rumor will get around school and back to the person it’s about and it really hurts their feelings. What really bothers me about that is what the students are saying because more then half of the time it’s not even close to being true. This is happening everywhere around the school and the students who it’s directed toward don’t even know its happening and they get treated horribly.
So Now that you’ve heard what I’ve had to say I hope you’ll do something about it. It isn’t fair to the students who are being made fun of or being talked badly about. They don’t know its happening and when they do find out it is too late to do anything and the other students are treating them differentially. It just makes me sick to see this happening and I demand people put a stop to this and leave everyone alone. If this is done I think that things might get better around here.
Sincerely, Brady
To Whom it may concern,
I am writing you this letter because there are many issues tormenting my life. But, one of the issues I think you are able to fix if you try hard enough. The issue that concerns me most is racism because I don’t like the way people are treating us.
As, I told you racism is one of my main concerns because people have been treating us the Hispanics and Latinos in an unpleasant way. Racism occurs around me in my daily life to my family and friends including me. One example is at school the way that students talk about us, laugh, and pick on us hurts us in many ways. One of the things that bother me more is when we always go to a store there is always an employee on our backs making sure we don’t steal anything. It’s like if they think that every person of a different race goes there is a stealer when most of us aren’t. This concern affects me a lot because no one can live equally and the same as others because we feel like prisoners being watched all the time. This concerns me also because I think we should all treat each other with respect and dignity because we are all people and we and we are a big family that is in this world for many reasons. We are all here to help each other when we can and to teach each other of what we learned from our own mistakes and we should all live in peace because we are all the same people. So, I hope that one day my concern of racism could change and help us all become friends and not doubt of each others actions. Us the Hispanics only came to this country to work and help our needy families survive. We did not come to this country to steal or kill one another. We are here for a better life and I hope that one day everyone in this country will understand our reasons.
Races not only occur here in South Dakota but, it also occurs in all fifty states. Whether we cannot or can stop racism but, we can try stopping it here. I am not the only person who is concerned with racism many people are scared of talking about it so I am trying to be the representative of the people who are scared of talking. I hope that this letter I have written to you in the above can help you realize that everyone is the same and we can change it all. Sincerely,
Jeaneth Fernandez
Dear Mr. Nold
I would like to start out by saying that this is a worry free world we’re living in. the issue isn’t a fact it’s a true statement. I am one of many students at Washington high school. I am writing this because of how much I see this issue in and out of the classroom and in the school. The issue I’m talking about is prejudice and racism brought on by kids here at school. The way it has come to is writing this letter. I am writing this to let you know what you don’t see everyday also as a student it is my point of view but if changes are made you would get that % change to come to school that hate to be here if you change these things.
Next I took a small poll and a certain % wrote or told me they have been treated this way because of how they look. That other percentage said they have never been treated unfairly. What I see as a student is fighting name calling and other stuff. There are a number of students that don’t come to school anymore because of it. We as a school should teach students to learn to get along with everyone and more on these topics.
Last of all I hope if these changes are made students will keep coming to school. Also the prejudice levels would be way lower then it sits right now. Also during lunch we should have a lot of different choices of things we can do during the lunch period if you want. Most of it would or should be under supervision of a teacher or an ample amount of teacher’s .finally that is why I say that this school is not a worry free place, it’s a true statement not an actual fact.
Sincerely yours truly
Russell Hansen
Dear Dr. Pam Homan,
I write this letter to express my concern centering around racial intolerance in the halls of our districts educational facilities. Though it may seem as if we live in times of peace and acceptance, our schools do still suffer from ethnic rivalry. With a strong ambition, I would very much be delighted to receive further assistance from you in obtaining my goal of racial equality for every minority. Racism is a physical and emotional dilemma in our schools that is tearing children and teenagers apart.
Racism hurts us all. Even when racism is not directed toward you, but is happening around you, the pain is still injected into your soul like a drug into and addict. It slowly kills you and relieves your body of the pride that you thought you had. I hear hurtful comments being said of my race, and of others races nearly every day of my life. It saddens me to come to the realization that this is how the children of our society are being raised. They know nothing better, and are doing nothing to better our community. From personal experience I can tell you that racism is a category of pain all in itself. Nothing can compare to the overwhelming grip it places on your emotions. When it finally hits you, it’s too late to ever again feel like you are a human being.
In the world today, racism has led to your race determining your character, intelligence, and behavior. Anyone with a sense of what is right and what is wrong knows that this is not in the least bit true. We are all different, and we all deserve the right to be different. The young members of our community are continually being separated by the clawing hands of racism. With the proper help we can stop this, and change our schools, our community, and the world.
Sincerely,
Matthew Phayvanh
Dear, Mr. Nold
While I walk through the halls of Washington high school people don’t except any differences of others. I look around and see students judging others just by the way they dress or by the way they look its sickening. Like for example if someone thinks you’re ugly so they think you’re different and make fun of you for it. If you where baggy pants and talk with a certain accent and you’re white they call you a wigger and don’t get a chance to know you. If you are Goth or emmo they just think you’re a freak or something.
This effects everyone, it hurts get judged just for being different. I honestly don’t like it at all, it just gets me mad when people go and do that. What’s the point seriously what’s the point of making fun of others or the way they dress that they are different. How would you like it if someone judges, I don’t think you would at all. So why don’t every one just stop.
It will be hard to forget what people say because some idiot has to open their big mouth so they can be the center of attention. They think they have to get the last word in. they think it will be cool if they make fun of others it is stupid. They need to get a life. I’m just tired of it
Sincerely Josh
Dear Mr. Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive of Walt Disney Company,
I am a senior at Washington High School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I am writing a letter about my concern with the number of teen pregnancies that I see personally. I think this may be in large part due to the amount of open sexuality that we see in the media around us.
There has been a high rise in teen pregnancies and the amount of teens having pre-marital sex. In just one day at school I saw at least 5 girls who were pregnant. Some of the reasons could be because music artists promote and say it is good and fun to have sex, the clothing is more provocative and revealing, and some people are uneducated on this topic. With all the different forms of media and styles of clothes, it is not hard to start to believe sex and pregnancy is ok. Sex can be a wonderful thing in the context of a loving monogamous relationship. However, casual sex by an immature young lady resulting in an unwanted pregnancy can be a great handicap to all those involved.
Dear Mr. Iger please review your films and try to make the portrayal of sex more in line with the ideas I have mentioned above. Thank you for reviewing this letter and I hope to hear back from you soon.
Sincerely,
Felicia Winskunas
Dear Mr. Obama,
I just finish reading To Kill a Mockingbird and was showed many examples of poverty. I believe that not only is this topic important but needs to be taken more seriously. Not only are people affected everyday from poverty and bankruptcy, but as well as the children. This is a matter that needs more attention immediately.
This matter concerns me as much as anyone else. If affects me as much as anyone else. It affects me plenty through school, home, a youth center, and even driving down the road. While sitting at lunch, I witness children sit at their tables doing nothing as to having no lunch money. I witness this at home as to previous debt and bills. I have witnessed this at the youth center, everyday. While people are not supplied or dressed properly because they lack money for there real needs.
As to my conclusion, it brings to my attention that poverty is a very serious matter. I believe nobody should have to stand in a line for supper at a banquet, or have to get loans because gas is too high. I feel that if this is not looked upon, we may be looking at our very next depression.
Sincerely,
Taylor Kelly
Dear Mr. Gundvaldsone
Something that has been affecting me is injustice. I strongly disagree with some of the injustice happening today. I am talking about injustice with law and things but also in school. I believe that injustice and unfairness are similar concepts. Now a lot of things are unfair and you have to live with those things but there should not be injustice.
I strongly disagree with a lot of the things the school district does. People get in trouble and get SAS and office referrals for things that happened out of school. A lot of times it has nothing to do with anything inside of school. This is something that I strongly dislike. The reason is because it is not the schools business and shouldn’t affect anything that happens in school. The other subject is injustice happening with the law. This I think is less common but still happens and is wrong.
I know that it is unlikely for both of these things to change but I would like them to none the less. As I have said I have strong feelings for these two subjects and dislike them very much. I hope that others feel the same way and something changes.
Sincerely,
Nathan Lorang
Dear Dave Munson,
This is winter. Which obviously means cold weather is bound to be here. I love to see all the caring clothes drives for homeless people. Supporting gloves, stocking hats, coats, and boots. But a even better thing would be to give them a home. Or even shelter. There are more homeless people now than ever. And they need our help to be happy and warm.
The fact is that many people can die over the next few months due to the harsh weather conditions. If we don’t react quickly less fortunate will find it tougher to find food, and the much needed warmth. We pay so much in taxes every year the way it is. What does all the money go to? Why not more toward shelters or community centers? They deserve a place to go while bearing the cold winter months just as much as we do. We know it’s a problem. But, what are we doing to fix it and put a smile on someone’s face?
Whether its taking our money or the governments. It needs to happen. And soon. I believe everyone deserves a chance. Even if we had to offer them jobs to help pay off the building and food. Whatever it takes it should be done. Action must be taken soon. We’ve been lucky so far to have a very small amount of snow fall. But we cant sit around for much longer.
Consider this please. More people are dying on a daily basis. Spare their life and make the world a better place. The more the merrier.
Sincerely Matt Danielsen
Dear Mr. Obama,
For English class this year, we had to read the book To Kill A Mockingbird. It is a very good book that has many life lessons in it. To me, the most important theme is accepting differences of others. Many people don’t understand of try to understand or try to understand anyone who is different from them. Who decides what is different anyway? No matter what race a person is, or how “weird” the are, accepting differences of others is very important
I have an older sister, Beth, who has Down syndrome, is deaf in one ear and has a hearing ad in the other. She is nineteen years old and is about 4’9”. For all those reasons, Beth is made fun of by most people who see her. People, who don’t know her, judge her for how she looks. I don’t think it is very fair that they do that. If people would accept her differences, they would know how talented she is. There are things that Beth does better than I do them. So why are we considered different? Is it because of how we look? No two people in the world look exactly alike. When people see past their differences, they could see how interesting the people they judge really are.
No matter what race a person is, or how “weird” they are, accepting differences of others is very important. To Kill A Mockingbird shows what happens when you judge people because they are different. It also shows that there are people, like Scout or Jem, who can actually accept others just because they are different. Accepting people for who they are seems to be very hard for almost everyone, but if can be done. I hope people can realize that you don’t have to treat people poorly just because they are different.
Sincerely,
Alex Holm
Dear Mr. Dave Munson,
I have recently read the story To Kill A Mockingbird. In the book the children had to deal with similar issues that we deal with on a daily basis. One of the issues that stuck out most to me was education, and how we have so many dropping out because of reasons that could be stopped.
I noticed that the kids that went to school didn’t really like it. Like in the story when Scout was told that she learned to read wrong she didn’t want to go back. That is what many people feel today as well. When we get the chance to be educated we take it, but not wanting what we have is what causes people to drop out. Most kids are very excited when it comes to kindergarten. They all pick out the coolest lunch box and the coolest backpack. Once they continue their education they get bored. They no longer want to be in school every day. This boredom is what causes people to drop out.
There are some people who drop out that have a very high potential. They could become a doctor or an engineer but instead they wasted their knowledge and become a burger flipper for the rest of their lives. I noticed this just this year. I knew a guy last year and I found out this year that he dropped out of school and now he works for minimum wage and later in life he might regret it, perhaps when he is trying to support children who want to further their knowledge.
Another problem is that some people don’t have the money to continue your education after high school. Education is the key to success, without it people wouldn’t live how they do today. Also without education people would not be able to have all the necessary components to getting a job so that they can buy what they need.
I think that a solution to this would be to reward those who stay in school from kindergarten through the moment they walk at graduation. I think that the state should reward people who get higher grades and they should give very big discounts for college for those who do. If this were to happen more people would be able to attend college and further their education to get a good job and succeed in life. Also I think that there shouldn’t be as many required classes and students should get to decide which classes they want to take depending on what they want to do in life.
In conclusion Education is very important and we can help to stop all the drop outs and help people enjoy school more.
Sincerely,
Molly Card
Dear Stephanie Herseth,
Today’s education is at a falter, the education system had taken a turn for the worst. The “Leave no child behind” act is leaving children behind, not giving schools adequate funding to maintain a good learning environment for children. The teachers of today do not have the mental degree nor the street thinking today’s kids have.
Kids today relate life in a number of ways, with television shows, they see in the news and everyday things with their parents or maybe even their teacher. Teachers try and try to cram things into our heads and not taking a step back and thinking about how students learn. Yes! Some teachers do go back to school or do studies on students and look there students do better in the class, because the teacher took time and was patient with there students and figuring out the best way to teach them and how to react to different learning abilities.
Also the school board and the higher education staff and yes even the state is to blame. Students can now drop out at the age of sixteen and yes that age was changed to 18, but it should be mandatory for every student to at least get a high school diploma. Most jobs today won’t accept you with out one, but McDonalds and the fast food industry are always looking for youth to ruin.
Schools do not put enough pressure on athletes, they get “better end of the stick” so to say. Schools let athletes play with a 1.7 GPA which is outrageous. That is a d+ average and many students are far far above that. I think the average should at least be 2.5 which is a nice strong c+ average. It would look good for athletes that plan on going to college and playing sports and getting a better education.
The education system is becoming sloppy, and it is the educators and the students to make it better for both worlds. If teachers ever plan on retiring they better teach their students well, because those students will some day take the place of their old teachers.
Sincerely
Tevin J. Boehrns
Dear Mr. Nold,
In my English class, we just finished reading the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Throughout the book, I noticed some major things going on that I didn’t really agree with. I noticed things such as racism, injustice, and many more things related to those that were shown in the book. But the one that stood out to me the most was judging people. I see it everyday, which I’m sure you do too, whether it is at work, at school, or anywhere else. In some cases, or to a certain extent, it can be a good or a bad thing.
No matter who you are, or what you’re like, I think everybody judges. But, just because somebody judges, doesn’t necessarily mean it in a negative way. For instance, someone could look at someone else and think, “That person looks like a very nice and friendly person” and maybe choose that they’d like to get to know them. An example that it could be in a negative way is if a person looks at someone and judges them by what they are wearing. For example, someone could be wearing clothes that aren’t name brand or something, and someone could judge them by saying that maybe they aren’t wealthy and wouldn’t be worth meeting them. Or, it could be the other way around were a person sees another person that is wearing name brand clothes, but that person may judge them and think that they are not very nice and wouldn’t want to be their friend. When people do that, I think that they could be loosing a great opportunity to make a good friend because they are judging them by the outside and choosing not to get to know what the person is really like on the inside. In some cases, they could be right about what they are judging that person by, but I think they should still get to know the person before they make that judgment final.
When someone judges another person, I think they should keep it in there head because it could go too far and could get out of hand. For instance, someone could be telling their friend what they think about another person, judging them, and that friend could be friends with the person that is being judged. That is why I think they should leave it in their heads because it could lead to a big mess. But, when they keep it in their heads, I think they should just keep it there and not act upon it. What I mean by that is not to look at that person weird and make it obvious, talk to them differently or not at all, or doing mean things to or towards them.
In some situations, I think there can be an exception to saying your thoughts about a person to another person. The situation that I think would be an exception is maybe if you are by yourself or with another person, looking out for yourself and watching your surroundings and see somebody and judge by the outside that maybe they are up to something. For a matter of safety, you could judge someone in that predicament.
All in all, judging could be a positive or negative thing. We see it everyday at work, school or pretty much anywhere. The negative ways need to be stopped. You can make a difference to stop it, by just keeping your thoughts in your head and leaving it at that.
Sincerely,
Kahryn R.
Dear Mr. Nold,
It has come to my attention that in the walls of WHS, students have not been getting the respect that they deserve. Everyday when I’m walking through the halls I see students being ran into and the other person not acknowledging that they ran into someone. Sometimes when I’m walking down the hall, there is one person who thinks they are the only one walking and runs right into me.
Also I see that when you go to your locker in the morning or after school, that when you get there you see that there are people standing right in front of it. Once you get there and ask them to please move, they just turn back around and start talking to their friends again. Another is that after the first bell rings in the morning and everyone is trying to get to their first period class, groups of people just stand right in the middle of the hall and talk; sometimes not even leaving enough room for you to get through.
In conclusion, respect has been very poor in our school and I hope that in the future everyone will be respected.
Sincerely,
Matt Steinhouse
Dear. Students
From now on, I’d like to talk about importance of education.
Education is important. I know that study is not easy because there are so many fun things around them. Also, it’s hard to work hard for boring thing. Despite, there are a lot of kids who work hard for their goal. Like I said, not all of students, but there are some kids who just disregard study and just want to have fun. I think schools need to impulse them so that they can have interest in study.
Some people say that there are ways they can success without education. But before they say that, they should be talented. Or not, they should put lots of effort. The thing that I want to say is it’s not easier, rather harder than study. If they study hard and finish their school with great result, they can get a job that they want more easily, they can live rest of their life comfortably.
Also, because study make people get tired and bored, don’t forget to do proper activity and exercise. They can improve the efficiency of study by blow away your stress. So they need to tune their schedule wisely.
I hope students can realize the importance of study be themselves before it’s too late. It’ll not go to be easy to do, but they should try it first before they give up.
Sincerely,
Irene Lee
Dear Mrs. Jorgenson,
For the past month or so we have been reading To Kill a Mockingbird. We just finished the book up. We discussed all the different life lessons in the story. One of the lessons in the book that impacts me is the importance of education. Education is very important to me. I want to take my education and do something with it. In some of the learning environments that I have been in though, do not really help with that. Even if someone may not want to take their education seriously, they should respect the others that do.
Have you ever heard any of those nagging students? They are always complaining about something. Many times it has to do with school. Whether it is the length of an assignment, level of difficulty, or they don't appreciate the way they are being taught. Well, I don't think they really understand the importance of their education. There are many negative affects to having a poor education. Also, many affects of having a well expanded education. I believe these students should work hard, and appreciate what a great experience they are going through. It will be some amazing help in the long run.
Some negative outcomes to a poor education vary. One outcome is being able to get a descent job. You need the money from this job in order to survive in the real world, and be independent. With a poor education you can work at common places. Being a waitress, working at Burger King, McDonald’s, or Taco Bell are some examples. In my opinion though, that’s not going to get you very far in life. You could work hours, and hours on end to make a good salary. When in reality you could get a good paying job having manageable hours, just from taking advantage of your education. You also need the communication aspect of your education. In order to communicate well with others and get things done. Others may look down on your based on the reason that your knowledge of things is just lower then theirs. The outcome of the people not only affects them, but it affects their peers.
To sum it all up, education is very important to me, and too many other people. I work very hard to pursue my education. I want to have a satisfying well paying job. In order to do this I need to have a good education. To get that good education, I need my peers to help out. Participate in class, be quiet when they should be, and focus.
Sincerely,
Sami Smith
Dear, Mr. Nold
In our English 2 class we finished the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” and in the story a lot of issues were brought up. So I decided to write this letter on the importance of education.
The reason I chose this topic was because I agree education is very important, but in class rooms the teachers are not really fun. Don’t get me wrong there are a lot of fun teachers; it’s just there isn’t many of them. I believe if the teachers made there classes more fun the students would take the class more serious. Maybe they would even be excited to go to the class. Like with me I enjoy going to Team Sports because
Mr. Hermanson makes it fun. But in other classes I dread going to them because the teachers are just not fun and it’s just boring. That’s why I think if you made the classrooms more fun the students would take school more serious.
So what im saying is try to put more student friendly things in the classrooms. Try to make the teachers play more games. Or instead of documentaries try movies, actual MOVIES. Because believe me I would pay attention in class if we got to watch a cool movie. I think everybody would.
Sincerely, Mason Knudson
To Mr. Jamie Nold,
I’m a student at Washington High School and I have a problem with the way our school distributes punishment to its student body. We work in a system that takes away any power, any choice away from its students and hands it to our faculty and staff. This injustice needs to be taken care of immediately.
I have been victim of this system on two accounts. The first one was in my freshman year. I had just returned from the store with a fresh new chocolate muffin. When a teacher I didn’t know walked by and nodded his head as I opened my muffin. A female teacher who I also didn’t know greeted me with a “Good morning,” as I began to eat my muffin. Several other teachers passed by as I started in on my muffin and none said a word against it. Finally when I was ¼ done with my muffin when a teacher comes by and says, “You can’t be eating in this hallway, you will be receiving an office referral.” So already being in trouble I took as much muffin as I could and shoved it in my mouth, and on the way to hand it to her I broke a piece off and stuck it in my mouth. She asked for my name and I handed her my ID without a word. I received an SAS for this exchange of muffin and ID and referral. Don’t you think that if all students are forced to follow all rules that all teachers should be required to do the same and if not abide by the following consequences?
Another incident happened just recently. I had been in an English 2 class since the beginning of the year. We had just been reading a book and filling out a study guide. I didn’t read the book so I neglected to fill out the study guide. I could’ve easily copied off of other students in the class but to my own discretion I didn’t do that. My mom hates cheaters and I didn’t want to cheat. So not having my study guide filled out, by logical thinking, I didn’t bring it to class because I didn’t think I would need it, unfinished as it was. So I left the study guide in my locker. My teacher then sent me to the office to fill out an office referral for insubordination. I will say me not reading or doing the study guide was my fault, but if the teacher had let on or warned that next time this happened id be receiving an office referral I would’ve had my work done hippy skippy. Warnings are few but trouble is much.
In a school that as predominant and as proud as WHS, our tolerability level needs to be raised to cut us kids some slack. Teachers on a daily basis remind us to grow up and at the same time treat us as children. Warnings of office referrals or detentions should be issued at the first sign of of a slight problem. Give warnings not an exact punishment. And be sure the punishment fits the crime committed. Don’t give a person an SAS for an ID violation or for not having a study guide. I hope this letter has put you in a position to make you think of how this school’s punishment system works.
Sincerely,
Mr. Xavier Mayo
Dear Mr. Obama,
In my life I’ve started to comprehend what poverty really means and the many ways the word poverty can become. In this letter I’m going to state my three main problems on how we can help people in poverty. My first concern is education. As you know education is the key to life. Many young teens don’t think education is the way to go and they end up dropping out of high school. Without a high school diploma you can’t get very far in life. If they do have jobs they are lucky to receive the money, but may not pay the rent of their house or apartment. Trying to find a way out of the hole they dug themselves in, the landowner calls it quits. Forced to move out and live on the streets.
This leads to my second concern with poverty, homelessness. Many families have young children and can’t feed them or give them a roof over their heads. Families are forced to live outside where infections are all over and may be living in them or with them. Some probably can’t even go to the doctor for a check up, if so they may not have the money to get the provided medicine to heal them or their children. It’s hard to find enough money with the economy we have today. With the homeless there are shelters and banquets we provide for them. But that’s not enough. We need something that can put them back on their feet. Children in these situations may not know what’s wrong or right. Parents argue about money all the time and their children listen to it. Many teens get tired of it and try to help the family in there money crisis and make money for the family.
This is my last and biggest concern, drugs and prostitution. Many young humans starting saying prostitution is the way to go, but its not. With prostitution comes experimenting with drugs and eventually they get addicted. After so many months or years they realize this is not the way to go, and want out. But when other people keep asking they take it. Many of these people get raped or beaten and let to die. We can’t leave then on the street or in a deserted home. Also including jail, not knowing what’s right or wrong.
As you can see there are more meanings and differences to poverty then no money. I’m very concern with our world today if this is the image we are portraying to our young children/ help fix the poverty issue today and make a difference in the world we live in.
Sincerely,
Sammie
Dear Mr. Nold,
My English class has just finished the book To Kill a Mockingbird and I have been asked to bring certain things to your attention. In the classrooms of WHS, I’ve noticed that students don’t realize the opportunities given to them by education.
Students frequently complain about why they have to go to school or how they have “so much homework”, when they don’t realize its importance later in life and eventually drop out. A high school diploma can go a long way, as you know. On résumés, job applications, or anything else they plan to sign up for. Without graduate status, people may not take them seriously.
One thing I suggest is that we get it into little kids’ heads that school is extremely important if you want to get far in life. If future teachers can incorporate this into the regular day, our city’s schools may have a lower drop-out rate. I, myself, still follow the golden rule and the “sharing is caring” idea which I learned in kindergarten. Future kindergarteners may retain this information just as I have and the city will have a higher graduation rate.
Sincerely,
Mason Calhoun
Dear Mr. Jamie Nold,
I’m a Sophomore here at Washington High School and lately I have been seeing issues that don’t seem to be great, I have been seeing unfairness and in the staff and teachers to my fellow students. I am writing this letter not to only inform you but also inform other representatives at our school and I hope you c an actually see where I am coming from. We have a pretty large school and also a pretty large student body, which however does not give the right to teachers to treat some better then others. As of myself I don’t respect nor do I appreciate that.
As I walk down the halls of WHS I see happy, tired, scared, anxious students but most of all I see kids getting treated unfairly, for example I have a student that is an athlete (sorry no names) in my Spanish class and he seems to think that just because he is an athlete and a pretty good one I may add he can do whatever he wants. He thinks that he can go to the bathroom whenever wished too, and he thinks he can just lie on his desk whenever he wants. He also seems to thinks that he can wear a coat the school policy says that is not allowed. The teacher keeps on telling him that he can’t do that but yet that has been said for the past month and its still going on. The teacher lets him do whatever he wants and that is not fair. She seems to think that just because he is an athlete I can just let him choose weather he can do his Homework or not. Well I think that he can get treated like he’s all that at his sport but he should not get treated better then everyone else at school that’s not fair. There are more issues and situations that I have seen like kids getting bullied and teachers not doing anything about it and when my friend told her counselor about an issue her friend had, and she had the counselor promise not to tell her friend what she told her but in the end the counselor told the girl and
So when your sitting at your desk and you think about the school day do you actually see that school as a success and not only am I talking about education success im talking about every type of success out there I think you should think long and hard about the BIG issues in WHS there are more then the ones I named.
Sincerely,
Iman ali
Mrs. Harper Lee,
I’ve been experiencing the acceptance of others since I can remember. It’s not easy to understand and accept people that are different from you. A way to try and fix this problem is to put yourself in other people’s shoes. Look at a situation in their point of view, to try and understand were they’re coming from. For example, my parents are two different types of people that have an outlook on things that they sometimes don’t agree on. For them to come together and agree, they need to accept each others differences.
It’s weird ho I can see their differences, but they are too stubborn to notice each others. My mom’s more of a free type of person. She’s laid back and doesn’t really get worked up over the little things. But she can be strict when she has to be. My dad on the other hand is the total opposite. He’s more of a thinker and likes things to be perfect. He’s also more business like and strict then my mom. So when it comes time for them to come together and agree on stuff. Like how to raise me, it’s difficult. Not only does it affect them, but seeing them argue affects me as well. My mom will say one thing, then my dad says another and usually nothing gets concluded.
In conclusion, I’ve learned too come together and accept people’s differences. Even if it’s hard, everyone has to do it because then nothing gets resolved. Like my parents I mentioned earlier. By not accepting other people’s ways of doing things it causes disagreement and problems. Next time you and a friend get into an agreement, listen to what each other have to say and try to accept that you guys are different and believe in different things. Even if you don’t agree on the same things, you have to learn to accept it and move on.
Dear Mr. Nold
In my third period English class we have just concluded the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Lee Harper. This book brought to my attention more than ever the issue of racism. Back in the 1930s it was a huge problem. Even though it has substantially subsided, in my opinion it is still an issue that needs to be resolved.
Racism is simply a cruel, nasty, and mean thing. Most people would agree in saying that it is a condescending gesture in an attempt to show superiority. In a sense it is a more degrading way of bullying. That is why I Believe it should be acted upon just as bullying is. Attention must be brought to this issue, especially in such a diverse school! Washington High School is an amazing place with amazing people and racism is simply something we do not need.
In conclusion, we may not be in the 1930s and things may have changed but racism still hurts. That is why I thing we should do all we can in order to completely eliminate racism, starting in Washington High. Not only that, but I challenge everyone reading this to stand up for what you know is right next time you hear a racist joke, or see someone pointing and sniggering. Thank you Mr. Nold for reading what I have to say. I hope that someday we can call work together to make the world a better place
Dear Mr. Nold,
I am writing you to explain my position on a topic that could change the mentality of our school. This topic is one of the themes of the book To Kill a Mockingbird. The theme is to look at the world from another person’s shoes.
If you look at a situation from another person’s shoes, your entire world changes. If there were a situation where you wanted to fight a person because they made fun of you, put yourself in their shoes. You can see that they’re talking smack about you to make themselves feel better. They might need a higher self esteem because their dad is drunk all the time of their mom makes them feel like a child. When you see it that way you might try to avoid the situation altogether or befriend that person.
If we use this classic yet simple idea in the halls of Washington, we all can be more peaceful. Also there can be a lot less conflict.
Sincerely,
Kathy
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