letters to Santa
I have a student whose mother teaches second grade at a local elementary school; as many elementary school teachers do, Mrs. S______ assigned for her second graders to write letters to Santa Claus. She then sent the letters to school with her son, who distributed them in my 2nd period SAT Prep class of juniors and seniors.
Most of my students wrote cute, humorous replies involving why Santa was going on a diet (to fit down the chimneys), what reindeer sound like (Eeeeeooogh), how Mr. and Mrs. Claus met (Mrs. Claus ran the North Pole post office), etc.
As I was shuffling through the stack of Santa's responses, one in particular caught my eye. I read it twice to make sure I hadn't missed something, then rifled through another stack of papers until I found the original letter written by the second grader, whose name was Not Joe. Not Joe, it turns out, had asked for quite a lot of presents in his letter to Santa, including some kind of Dragonball-Z action figure and (oddly enough) a laser trip-wire.
Here is my student's reply to Not Joe. Keep in mind that the intended recipient of this letter is a seven-year-old boy.
I attempted to find out which one of my students had written the admonition, but no one would own up to it, despite all of my pleas. Finally, one girl volunteered to rewrite the letter to make it more kid-friendly (thank goodness!), and I eventually discovered that the letter's author (another girl) had been in the restroom when I'd discovered it and had missed my attempts to find the culprit out.
Don't get me wrong--I am all for teaching kids positive traits like honesty, generosity, respect, etc., and for teaching them the hard way when necessary. If my kid had been a little snot who asked for a month's salary's worth of toys, I would want him to get a letter like that from Santa. But since the child was not mine, I just couldn't see shattering the illusions of a seven-year-old whom I never mothered, taught, or even met.
So now it's your turn--post, either in the comments for this post or on your own page, your best letter to Santa story. :)
Most of my students wrote cute, humorous replies involving why Santa was going on a diet (to fit down the chimneys), what reindeer sound like (Eeeeeooogh), how Mr. and Mrs. Claus met (Mrs. Claus ran the North Pole post office), etc.
As I was shuffling through the stack of Santa's responses, one in particular caught my eye. I read it twice to make sure I hadn't missed something, then rifled through another stack of papers until I found the original letter written by the second grader, whose name was Not Joe. Not Joe, it turns out, had asked for quite a lot of presents in his letter to Santa, including some kind of Dragonball-Z action figure and (oddly enough) a laser trip-wire.
Here is my student's reply to Not Joe. Keep in mind that the intended recipient of this letter is a seven-year-old boy.
Dear Not Joe,Of course, I thought this letter was hilarious, but I doubted the child reading it (or his mother, for that matter) would've seen quite so much humor in it. While I appreciated my student's attempt to use Santa Claus's voice to teach a life lesson, I just didn't think it would go over well--especially when the other kids got such friendly letters.
Please remember that naughty children are selfish. You sure do ask a lot. Children who ask less get more. There are many children in the world who don't even have Christmas trees for me to put presents under. I have not checked my naughty or nice list yet, so please be nice for the remainder of the year. Have a very merry Christmas!
Love,
Santa Claus
I attempted to find out which one of my students had written the admonition, but no one would own up to it, despite all of my pleas. Finally, one girl volunteered to rewrite the letter to make it more kid-friendly (thank goodness!), and I eventually discovered that the letter's author (another girl) had been in the restroom when I'd discovered it and had missed my attempts to find the culprit out.
Don't get me wrong--I am all for teaching kids positive traits like honesty, generosity, respect, etc., and for teaching them the hard way when necessary. If my kid had been a little snot who asked for a month's salary's worth of toys, I would want him to get a letter like that from Santa. But since the child was not mine, I just couldn't see shattering the illusions of a seven-year-old whom I never mothered, taught, or even met.
So now it's your turn--post, either in the comments for this post or on your own page, your best letter to Santa story. :)
posted by aome at 3:06 PM
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