VERNON — Students in Maresa Nielson's fourth-grade class at Vernon Elementary School recently worked on an assignment that's close to our hearts here at The Commons: writing letters to the editor.
The fourth graders wrote individual letters on the topic of water, its ownership, and its use, buttressing their arguments with facts gleaned from a variety of news sources, ranging from Vermont Public Radio to Al Jazeera on topics from Flint, Michigan's corroded water pipes to the Dakota Access Pipeline to industrial carcinogens contaminating water in North Bennington.
In December, the students also came to visit our newsroom, bringing some intelligent questions about the form and function of a community newspaper. They also got to see the pages of the newspaper in production, and we began editing one of their letters together.
Following are some excerpts from many of the letters. We edited for redundancy and space considerations, but we hope we have done so with a light-enough touch that youthful voices, energy, and enthusiasm are preserved. They did a nice job.
We love working with students, and we would be happy to talk about what we do, either in our office or at your school - drop me a line at [email protected] if you would like to talk about how we can make local community newspapers part of your students' education. And Commons readers of all ages should send letters - about water or otherwise - to [email protected]. -Jeff Potter, editor