practical persuasion

The end of the school year is winding down, and we're all getting excited for when school lets out this Thursday!  Meanwhile, it seems like there have been all sorts of end-of-the-school-year activities going on that have been keeping us hopping.

Today Maddie came home from school and wanted me to sit down beside her while she unloaded her many treasures, from her chuck-full backpack, that her teacher had allowed her to bring home at last.  Her pride and joy was a binder filled with many of her writings from the school year. She had me read every essay that she has written, and there are some great (humorous) writings in there!

One of my favorites was a persuasive paper that she had written on  "why kids need to have swimming lessons."  This was a topic that she came up with herself, by the way, and I have got to tell you, that it was a successful paper because I am convinced, even more than I was previously, that kids DO indeed need swimming lessons. 

Here are her hypothetical persuasive arguments:  "A lot of kids don't know how to swim so if they were reading in a basement and it flooded the kids would drown."  "You could be in the middle of the ocean fishing and your boat could sink and a shark could devour you if you don't know how to swim." "You might live by a pond and you would want to swim in it. Advice: If you did not learn how to swim, don't teach yourself!" "If you are in a car on a bridge with water under you and someone bumps into you, you could go flying out the door and into the water.  If you don't know how to swim the car could fall on top of you and you could get smashed. Advice: Learn how to swim, then don't get smashed." "When you get older, and you are in an airplane it could lose control and crash into the water.  The airplane could be on fire, and if you can't swim away from it, you could get burned."

Are you convinced?   I was reminded that I hadn't signed up for lessons yet, so I got that done today:).