61 Comments
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jerry kleiner's avatar

What a wonderful essay, and how proud you should be of your daughter. I hope she is considering a career in journalism or being an author. She has a very inviting writing style.

Of course, the content is very sad and painful. No kid should have to go through something liek this but it is the sign of the times.

I wish you and your daughter the best and PLEASE, let us know the response she gets from her teacher.

papa j

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Alex Fox's avatar

Seems to me that she did the homework assignment perfectly. She engaged critically with the source material, explored its biases, and explained its relevance to her life. Looks like an A+ to me.

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Jonathan Reefe's avatar

I agree. In declaring she would not do the assignment, she actually did the assignment! Like others here I’d be very interested in the school’s response.

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Robin Alexander's avatar

Exactly!!!

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April's avatar

Thank you for republishing this! I think I read it somewhere else. What an impressive young woman the author's daughter is! I see a lot of similar problems in my work and my heart goes out to the young people trying to see their way through it. I hope to someday be in a position to change something... anything! Lots of love to you and this brave young woman!

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Helen Rauch-Elnekave's avatar

What a kid! And "kol ha-kavod" to her parents!!

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Allison's avatar

Yasher Koach. It's too bad that the Washington Post would never publish this. They could use your daughter at their newspaper.

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Sandi's avatar

She wrote beautifully. I'm curious of the teacher and school response

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jayne wynick's avatar

Amazing letter and courage. What was the schools response

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Gilda Joffe's avatar

All I can say is that your daughter is a needed illumination to this world. This fantastic essay should be published everywhere as it shows intelligence, courage, and extremely coherent writing. She obviously has a bright future ahead of her- should she choose to ignore the morons of this civilization. Her fighting spirit and rational thinking already put her ahead of 95 percent of the world's population, therefore you must be thrilled to have brought such a resilient soul to this planet.

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Richard Hacker's avatar

One is fortunate in life to eventually determine who is "friend" and who is "enemy". Unfortunately, this young woman had to find that out so early in her life. Regarding her response to this situation, as I might tell my kids and grandkids, "Good kid."

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Dena Tauber's avatar

Wow such a sophisticated writer at such a young age. And powerful. Let us know how the teacher responds.

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Liane Wakabayashi's avatar

So well put, so respectful to stand up to callousness at best, deliberate evil at worst, of the NYC educational system, in which I was raised too, generations ago.

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Rebekah's avatar

Beautiful essay.

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Emily's avatar

Great letter. I am sorry your daughter has had to endure such hatred.

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LittleImp's avatar

Great letter, (and let me say this from the myopic view of the parent of a high schooler thinking about college, I think she’s already got the answer to one of the Common App essays right there).

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Steve S's avatar

Would love to hear the rest of the story, and what sort of grade your daughter got from the teacher. Not that it matters too much, because your daughter scores an A+ for intelligence, character, fortitude, writing style, and content.

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Paul Marcel-Rene's avatar

What an amazing intelligent teen. Hope she received an "A" and an apology.

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