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Letters to the president from my class??

Posted : 1/16/2007 7:40:54 PM

I know this is really a teacher type question, but hey, I need advice.... and you guys are always good for that!

Here goes:

My group of newcomer students have been working on endangered animals, we have read books, done a research project/poster on an endangered animal of their choice, and our next step is to write a persuasive letter to ... someone... we voted from the following choices (thought up by themselves):

President/government

Hunters

Endangered animal groups

Newspaper

(and maybe another option that I can't recall at the moment)

BUT

President won by a landslide...

Now, my problem is the following:
Considering everything that is going on in the world (ie. Iraq) my fear is that the president won't even have the time to have some secretary send us a reply.... Also, not that our letters are going to make a huge impact on him, but hes not a very earth conscious president (refusal to sign the Kyoto Treaty as one example...)

Maybe its silly to think that we would get a response anyway....
But should we just send it to him anyway, or to a congressman maybe? (Though, the kids are pretty psyched about writing to the president....)

Does anyone know the correct address to send letters to the white house?

Also,
What do you think would be more effective? To type the letters (professional) or to hand write them (to make a bigger kid centered impact?)

Michelle

Posted : 1/16/2007 7:44:57 PM

It's unlikely the President will ever even see your letter. I think you'd have a better chance of sending it to your Congressman. In fact, you could actually make that part of the project, send it to ALL those groups, and see who and how fast and what type of responses you get. Might be pretty interesting!

alieliza

Posted : 1/16/2007 7:47:04 PM

Thats a good idea.... to send it to all of them.

I know that the president will never see our letters, and that it MAY get read by a secretary, and that our ten letters aren't going to make a believer out of him.... but the kids are into the idea... though I think I may redirect them to a congressman...

They would love to write letters to the animal group too, and we will also try a local newspaper...

cyclefiend2000

Posted : 1/16/2007 8:18:19 PM

[linkhttp://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/]http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/[/link]

this has the address for the white house. there isnt an email address listed for the president, but i have heard him say in interviews that he doesnt use email.

i like the idea of sending letters to each of the different groups too. you never know what kinds of responses you might get.

griffinej5

Posted : 1/16/2007 8:29:47 PM

I'm thinking you may just get some type of thanks for writing type thing which will be stamped with the president's signature by a secretary most likely. However, if they're all psyched to write to the president, i'd say let 'em write to the president. If you would like to get actual responses, you might also try writing to your state and local congressional representative. Heck, you might want to try writing to them anyway, because knowing how to contact these people may come in handy in the future for your students.

Scout in Canada

Posted : 1/16/2007 10:28:37 PM

I remember doing this when I was in public school. I wrote to the President and Congressmen with my ideas and thoughts. I also wrote to World Wildlife Fund and perhaps Greenpeace asking for ideas of what we as a class could do. And to Dupont asking what they as a company are doing to help the environment.

It was fun seeing all the different responses. I would definitely write to more than one person, as some of the responses are guaranteed to be generic and boring - but some are really interesting.

erl

Posted : 1/16/2007 10:56:02 PM

One of my previous teachers had us write letters to a congressman on issues affecting the environment, and the year before us, one of the letters was actually brought up in Congress.
But I think you should send letters to all sorts of groups so you get different responses and maybe this can help the kids eventually to get involved in helping the animals.

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 1/17/2007 10:37:23 AM

You might get a better response (and maybe even a little local publicity) if you write to your state Governor instead. []

Joyce

probe1957

Posted : 1/17/2007 11:04:59 AM

I'll bet ya a quarter, if your kids write to POTUS, they will get a response.

brookcove

Posted : 1/17/2007 1:31:05 PM

Free advice from a former English teacher . . .

Be sure to write to your House Rep and Senator as well - it's good exercise to come up with ways to tailor your message to different audiences who have different interests and motivations.

probe1957

Posted : 1/17/2007 1:40:19 PM

And free advice from someone who used to write to elected representatives on a frequent basis -- this would be a good time to teach the kids the proper greeting for each of the different reps they write to.