Syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell recently got a letter from a fifth-grader at Sayre Elementary School in Lyon, Michigan asking the PhD economist what to do about the economy. Sowell could have ignored the note, or sent back a brief greeting. He had a different idea.
Instead, I replied to his parents: With American students consistently scoring near or at the bottom in international tests, I am repeatedly appalled by teachers who waste their students’ time by assigning them to write to strangers, chosen only because those strangers’ names have appeared in the media. It is of course much easier — and more “exciting,” to use a word too many educators use — to do cute little stuff like this than to take on the sober responsibility to develop in students both the knowledge and the ability to think that will enable them to form their own views on matters in both public and private life.
OK, Dr. Sowell, point taken. Maybe the assignment wasn’t particularly well thought out, but give the kid–and his teacher–a break. If you want kids to understand that writing is a means of interacting with the broader world, there’s little harm in using the power of the pen to try to engage people in positions of influence. Churlishly, Sowell is having none of it.
What earthly good would it do your son to know what economic policies I think should be followed, especially since what I think should be done will not have the slightest effect on what the government will in fact do? And why should a fifth-grader be expected to deal with questions that people with Ph.D.’s in economics have trouble wrestling with?
Maybe he should have written to Kate Gosselin instead? Frankly, if one of my 5th graders chose to write to Thomas Sowell instead of an athlete, actor or musician, I’d be pretty impressed.
I never assigned my kids the task of writing to famous people, but there were a couple of occasions when a little attention from the outside world made my 5th graders especially proud. NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein once sent my class a nice note congratulating my students for completing an ambitious reading project. And back when DFER’s Joe Williams was the education reporter for the NY Daily News, he wrote a piece inspired by letters my students wrote to the NYC Department of Education, offering to help correct a city-issued student code of conduct that was rife with misspellings and grammatical errors. In both instances, it was a thrill for the kids to get a reaction from people in the public eye. It made them feel powerful, and see that their words and work mattered. No harm in that.
Give the kids a break. Take an interest. Write a nice letter back. They’ll remember it for the rest of their lives, and you might just inspire them to greater heights.
Yuck! A message like that tells kids that they don’t matter, until they’ve absorbed the right knowledge, can comprehend scholarly documents, and vote. A pretty archaic POV on childhood. You might even suggest that Sowell doesn’t understand 21st century constructivist learning (sorry). In any event, Thomas Sowell has just made himself the poster child for “Hey! You! Get Off of My (Intellectual) Lawn!”
So–what happens when kids who send a Famous Guy a letter get a grumpfest (sent to their parents, presumably to get the teacher in trouble) in return? Do they learn their lesson? Or do they stop trying to engage–at whatever level–in civic discourse? Hasn’t Thomas Sowell ever read about Lincoln’s response to the little girl who thought he should grow a beard? Or Virginia O’Hanlon, and the New York Post–as in “yes, Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus?” Being nice to kids is how we lead them into civilization.
BTW, the elementary school is in South Lyon, Michigan. Also BTW, economics is part of the Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations, beginning in grade two, and cranking up seriously in grade five. Largely because the Chamber of Commerce wanted it there.
Well said, Nancy. Your point about civic engagement is dead-on. I didn’t recall the Lincoln letter, but here’s a link which tells the charming tale:
http://home.att.net/~rjnorton/Lincoln50.html
How sad for the children. Letter-writing is a neglected art that is nevertheless still relevant to 2009 (and beyond). Cogent, thoughtful personal communication–in business, law, politics, and many other fields–is a pretty basic skill. I encourage my students to write letters, both imaginary and “real” letters that we intend to send, to teach the idea that person-to-person communication needs to be more than a text message filled with OMGs and LOLs. It needs to be well-thought-out, organized, courteous, and relevant. It is not at all a waste of time, and I agree with Robert that the student’s choice of Sowell was impressive. Too bad that, whatever good ideas Sowell has, he has surely soured this young person on them.
Another example of a letter from a child to a prominent person just occurred to me. Does anyone remember Samantha Smith and her letter to Yuri Andropov?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Smith
Perhaps he cc’ed the kid on the letter to his parents.
Sowell is being overly curmudgeonly, but his advice is sound. Wouldn’t it have been hypocritical of Sowell to respond personally to the kid based on the advice set forth in the column which is, in effect, an open letter to the student, the teacher, and everyone else interested.
I actually had drafted an email to Dr. Sowell a few months ago in response to a book of his I’d read. Now I’m glad I never sent it because he probably would’ve considered it an annoyance. What a grump!
I agree that Sowell seemed awfully grumpy. The kid wrote to an economist to ask his opinion on the economy: That’s not weird. I suspect Sowell gets lots of mail from students wanting him to write their term papers and he’s fed up. I used to get that when I was a newspaper columnist. After awhile, it gets old.
I agree with Mr. Sowell. It was a huge waste of classroom time and accomplished nothing as far as educating the child. For a website focused on improving education, I think the responses focus way to much on making the child feel good about himself. Isn’t that how we got into this educational mess in the first place. Mr. Sowell is right to worried and angry about the state of American education.
Letter writing for 5th graders. That should be taught and over by 3rd grade. A better assignment would be doing some research about economics and figuring out for themselves which program will work better.
Sowell should have treated the fifth grader more kindly. But he was understandably irritated by the assignment’s emphasis on fame. Why should schools teach children to seek out the opinions of the famous? The kid wrote to him: “I have been assigned to ask a famous person a question about how he or she would solve a difficult problem.”
Is the idea here that famous people, just by virtue of being famous, have some special angle on the truth? Why should “a famous person” know how to solve “a difficult problem”? And why should children be encouraged to seek out famous people?
I’d rather see schools teach children that not all wise people are famous, and not all famous people are wise.
Having seen some curious interpretations of my assignments come back to me in my 5th graders’ writng, I’m not going to be so quick to assume the assignment was exactly as Sowell describes.
As to the goal of teaching that not all famous people are wise, well…the learning objective was met.
I think that was a pretty sorry performance from Sowell. It was worse than curmudgeonly. It was cruel. He didn’t have to name the school or write the parents. I have to wonder about someone who sees a child’s letter as fodder for a national column of that sort. What a self-important jerk.
How can he possibly know the fuller context of the child’s assignment? How can he know what happens in that child’s classroom? Surely his training should teach him not to jump to conclusions.
I see your point, Diana, but surely someone who holds a Ph.D. in economics is certainly the right person to go to for thoughts on the economy, right? It’s not like the kids was asking LeBron James for his ideas on health care reform.
Claus, Robert, you are right. It was cruel to the kid. Whatever Sowell’s objections, he shouldn’t have put this in a national column or written to the parents. If he had concerns, he could have contacted the teacher.
I still have to wonder, though, about an assignment like that. Even if it wasn’t the way the kid made it sound, why set kids up? Why have them write letters to strangers of their choosing without looking into the situation beforehand? Why assume that the “famous” (or influential, or knowledgeable) person will take kindly to a letter from a kid?
The kid shouldn’t have had to suffer for it. Sowell had no business being so nasty. But the school should be more cautious about encouraging kids to make contact with the outer world.
How was Sowell cruel to the kid? He wrote to the kid’s parents, not to the kid. For all we know he sent the kid a letter that politely refused to answer his question separately.
Furthermore all Thomas Sowell’s criticisms were directed at the teaching method, not anything about the kid personally.
And what’s cruel about naming the school? Yes Sowell didn’t have to name them, or write to the parents, but it’d be a pretty dull life if we only did the things we have to do.
I’m sufficiently intrigued enough by this discussion to want to know exactly what the assignment was. I’ve put in a couple of calls to the school and its principal this morning. I’ll report back what I find out.
Call me a grinch once again, but I find I am on Sowell’s side this time. Maybe he was unnecessarily rude, or maybe not. He said he wrote to the parents, but he didn’t tell us exactly what he said. In his article he is addressing us, neither the kid nor the parents. And in his views I think I totally agree.
The assignment strikes me as not being a good use of the children’s time and efforts. I would hate it as a fifth grader. I would hate it for its pretension. Of course I also realize that I would go along with that pretension as a fifth grader. As a parent of a fifth grader I would go along with the pretension to be polite and supportive of the teacher. If I were a colleague of that teacher I would do the same. But I would hate it from any angle.
I can well relate to Robert’s view, just send the kid a note already. I understand that pretension is part of a price we pay for civility. We pay it every day, many times a day it seems. It is a price well worth paying, in the big picture. But sometimes it sure feels good to be honest and say directly, “No, I don’t agree with that. I don’t support that. I think it’s a poor choice.”
Our context for thinking about this whole affair is education, and educational improvement. The kid’s letter provided an opportunity for Sowell to express some opinions. I’m glad he did. I hope he was not nasty with the kid, or the parents. But we really don’t know. He is talking to us in his column. And I agree with what he said.
I predict this kid will become a writer; he has learned the power of the pen. With one little sheet of lined paper he created a national news story, and yanked the chain of a columnist who considers himself the boy’s superior. Nice work. And bravo to the teacher for a great assignment. For their next assignment, perhaps these kids could analyze an article by Sowell, or better yet, analyze his character, and do a search through literature for similar curmudgeons.