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 feel very sad to hear that thanks to these taggers, kids are fearing for their lives. I think that the people that do this graffiti should be severly punished, but not put in jail. Because not only are they making some places look ugly, but they are taking a right from the people that live in the neighborhood. The right that the people have is to be able to live in a clean and peaceful community.
MARIBEL GUTIERREZ
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