Graffiti Letters by Students Inspire Others
Excerpts from letters written by sixth-graders about graffiti at Rosemead’s Savannah Elementary School (Times Dec. 6, 1992) inspired sophomore English teacher Karen Blumenfeld to propose an assignment in argumentative writing to her students at Ganesha High School in Pomona.
Their views on graffiti, ranging from admiration to fear to disgust to resignation, came in a deluge of 88 letters. “Thank you for ‘Children React to Graffiti Problem’--it led me to an exciting assignment in which nearly all students got involved. This is a real accomplishment,” Blumenfeld wrote.
The majority of the writers harshly disapproved of graffiti and related gang violence, but some looked at the problem from the perspective of the tagger, reaching a different conclusion. Following are excerpts, with the original spelling and grammar:
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I am writing this letter to you to let you know that I’m very afaird of my community in Pomona. I live beside a family and I think that they’re selling drugs. There are a lot of single men living in that house. They drink and make noise everyday. Everybody living in my neighborhood are scared of them, therefore they don’t even walk outside the door at night. I am scared of being killed.
HAN LA
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