Tuesday, July 07, 2009

A letter to the President

Last Christmas my friend Jean, a teacher in a local school, requested contributions of various things that her children had a need for in the upcoming year. I don’t remember all the things she asked for but I do remember there were things like crayons, pencils, gloves. I opted for pencil sharpeners – they seemed practical. Now buying 40 pencil sharpeners was not an easy task, it seemed like all the big box stationary stores didn’t quite stock that many of the same kind. However in this internet age we have www.discountschoolsupplies.com who will gladly furnish you with any number of pencil sharpeners and deliver them to your door.

So I donated 40 pencil sharpeners and thought no more of it. After Christmas I got 40 cards from all the students thanking me for the nice present. It was all quite touching. Anyway I got over it and I again thought no more of it until the other week Jean gave me a copy of a letter that one of her children had written to President Obama. The point of the letter was a response to President Obama’s request for everyone to pitch in and work harder towards the common good (or something similar) and all her class had written to the President.

One of the children – Destiny is her name – mentioned me in her letter. How cool is that, she wrote to President Obama and mentioned Mr Steve who donated pensil shaprenrs (sic) to her class. Take a look at her letter below. Apparently Ms. Destiny doesn’t use her pensil shapenr for sharpening pencils but for saving laddy bugs (ladybirds).


Now before you readers in the UK get all critical about the spelling and the dire state of English Language instruction in American Schools just be aware that Ms. Destiny is quite young and in a “special needs” class so she deserves some slack. While you (can I still say we) can rightfully decry what the Americans have done to the English Language this should not be taken as a good example of that.