Change Our School’s Name (Letter to Mr. Lev)
June 18, 2020
Dear Principal Lev,
How did our school become named after Hamilton? We’ve been learning about heroes and villains. Phillis Wheatley had the chance to learn how to read and write. She was also an enslaved person who got her freedom. She was a poet. Our school should be named after Phyllis Wheatley because she had beautiful poems, she was smart, and she was helpful in the war.
Our school should be named after Phillis Wheatley because she wrote poems. In the text it states, “family recognized her amazing ability to write beautiful poems.” This shows our school should be named after Wheatley because she was a great writer. She became free from slavery because of her poems and she was famous.
Our school should be named after Phillis Wheatley because she’s smart. In the text it states, “her education was better than any enslaved person at the time.” This shows our school should be named after Wheatley because she had the choice to learn to read and write and that enslaved black people were not allowed to.
Our school should be named after Phillis Wheatly because she helped during the war. In the text it states, “In 1775, she wrote “To His Excellency George Washington” in which she praised the famous general.” This shows that she was helpful because she was supporting the war and cheering them on.
Principal Lev it should be clear to you that our school name should be changed to Phillis Wheatley Middle however some say the school should still be named Hamilton. He helped in the Revolutionary War. Even though he fought in the Revolution, he’s still a villain because he tried to influence elections and get the people he wanted elected. For this reason, our school should be named after Phillis Wheatley because she wrote poems and she was smart and she was helpful during the war. Due to the reasons I wrote in my letter I hope you consider changing the name of the school.
Sincerely,
Joeliz Santana
Benjamin Lev • Jun 24, 2020 at 11:07 am
Dear Joeliz,
You have put the pressure on me here to rethink the name of our school! While I am sad to say that I did not know much about Phyllis Wheatley before reading your writing, she is clearly worthy of having a school named after her for her tremendous accomplishments. In many important ways, she is certainly more deserving than Hamilton.
Hamilton was a fitting namesake because he lived in our neighborhood, was an immigrant to the country like so many of us, and was one of the few “Founding Fathers” that did not participate in slavery.
I am interested in seeing more of your writing!
Leo • Jun 22, 2020 at 1:20 pm
I think that there were quite a few things that the author of this article did very well. The author provided a lot of evidence, and that is very important when writing a convincing letter, and on top of that, they saw a problem, and they gave what seems to be a very good solution to this problem, and clearly explains why the solution is useful. This also had quite a bit of detail, and I think that is important when trying to persuade someone, and because of that, this is very good.