Why My Nephew Should Be President Someday

In the midst of all the 2012 election hoopla, Seiji wrote this letter for a class assignment on persuasion. It really impressed me as a no-nonsense approach to a problem, an example of how even a ten-year-old could find a simple and economic solution. If only balancing the national budget without sacrificing the necessities were that simple! Read and discuss:

Mural of spot-on J.R.R. Tolkien quote, borrowed from here.

Dear Lunch Ladies:

I am Seiji, a ten-year-old in Omuro Sensei’s class.  I am writing to you about our lunch closing time.  Please extend the time for selling lunch so that the fifth graders who come late to lunch will still get food.  I have a few reasons for this.

If a kid comes late to the cafeteria there will be no lunch for him.  He will either starve, or beg for food from other people, which isn’t very polite.  In other words, if he did get lunch he would be eating well and his parents won’t have to be concerned about him starving.  If he tells his mom about that he had to starve at school with no food, she would then make his food every day so then you wouldn’t get as much money as before and your profit would go down.

Another reason is that if he doesn’t get enough food he will not have the energy he needs to study in class.  And if he does not pay attention in class he will have to ask the teacher too many questions and will get in trouble with the teacher for not listening, which is not fair because he just didn’t get enough lunch.  If he doesn’t listen or notice, he will not know how to do his assignment and would have to call a friend to ask questions.  This would probably annoy his friend, especially if there are a lot of questions.

Finally, a student without enough food wouldn’t have the energy to finish his homework.  He would either complain to his mom, who may be tired from work, that he’s hungry or just stay up late doing homework. Or he might have to do most of his homework in the morning, especially if he has a lot of activities like sports or music like I do.  The next day in school, he would be tired and in P.E. he would try as little as an ant to do the activities, which would affect his grade if this cycle continues daily.

I know that extending lunch may cost the time and extra money.  However, the food left over could be eaten by you, or can be put in the refrigerator and be used for another day.  This way you can keep the profit, and may save time and money because the food is already cooked.

Again, please take this seriously and extend your time for selling lunch for the good of our grades, energy, and stomachs.  Thank you for your time in reading this letter and again, please consider this suggestion as a way to keep the money going.

Sincerely,

Seiji


Epilogue: Seiji's friend, whose parents own a restaurant, wrote a similar letter addressing the quality of the cafeteria's food. If the children are our future, we're in good hands.