Dear Mr. President

My daughter gets Time for Kids at school. I think it's great - she's always talking about stuff she read there and it seems to keep her up on current events pretty well. I guess it replaced the Weekly Readers from when I was in elementary school.

They had a form letter called Dear Mr. President where the student was to fill out an introduction, answer three simple questions and provide an ending. Here's what she wrote (in italics):

Dear President George W. Bush,
Introduction: Introduce yourself and tell why you are writing this letter.
Hello, my name is Tori Howard. I am writing about you and your big problem. You are spying on people in the United States.

Paragraph: Describe one problem in the United States. Then give your viewpoint on the problem. Give facts and details to support your opinion.
One problem in the United States is you spying on people, and without court permission too. Why, George Bush, Why?

Paragraph:Suggest one way that you think the President can solve this problem.
You can try to get court permission or you can stop spying on people, because you're invading people's privacy.

Paragraph: Tell the President what you think he should do to help improve the lives of U.S. children.
You need to stop spying. Because you might make children think it's ok to spy on people and that's not good. If you're the President, set a good example.

Ending: Restate the main points of your letter. Then thank the President for his time.
So I just ask for you to stop spying on us. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Tori Howard

A story about the wiretapping thing was on NPR in the car quite a while ago and we were talking about it. I was happy to see that she remembered and must have taken something substantial away from the conversation. When we talk about politics, I try to tell her and her sister why I don't like Bush and explain in terms of the values I'm teaching them, rather than just saying Bush sucks and leaving it at that.