Excellence in Education: Letter from Obama
Posted by Gwen Baumgardner
When seventh grade students at Schoo middle school enter their Social Studies class, they see a bulletin board that says ‘Have a problem? Contact your Rep.’ It encourages them to let lawmakers know about issues in their community. This board sparked a class project.
"It was a project where we had to write to like a Governor or someone about a problem that we thought that our community to fix," says 7th grade student, Trinity Goodman.
She chose to write about homelessness, while others wrote about issues like recycling and equality.
In October, students sent their letters.
"We got some letters back from senators and the Governor as well, but I certainly didn’t expect to get a letter back from the White House," says teacher, Jake Bogus.
But then the school received a large envelope via first class mail.
A signed letter from the then-President himself. Dated from President Obama’s last few days in office.
"I didn’t think he [President Obama] was going to read it, and I don’t think our class thought that he was going to read it, so it was like exciting. And I felt proud that he read what I wrote," says Goodman.
As for what the President wrote?
"A personal message to the students just saying that it’s important that you’re politically active now, and that you’re getting a solid education in middle school, and that you continue to be politically active when your graduate," says Bogus.
President Obama also included a signed photo of himself and one of his family. The letter and the photos will be framed and hung up at the school.
