A Letter to Second-Grade Students by Alena

A Letter to Second-Grade Students by Alena - March 2018 Scholarship Essay

Dear Second Graders,

In case you are wondering why it is so important for you to go to school, I am going to give you three reasons you should never, ever forget. Here is the first one.

Reason #1: Work comes before play.

There is a story about a wooden puppet named Pinocchio who wanted to become a real boy, but first, he had to learn to be a good boy. One day, Pinocchio’s father told him to go to school to learn to be a good boy. Instead, he went with some bad boys to play at a circus full of fun and games. After playing for a long time they were punished for playing too much. They turned into donkeys to do hard work for the circus. Pinocchio escaped, but he could not become a real boy because he had been bad and did not know what it means to be good.

This is a made-up story, but it teaches us real-life lessons. When you are a kid, you do not have to work. You can play and play. Your parents work hard so that you can play. But, they have to prepare you to become a grown-up too someday. When you grow up, you need to get food, clothes, and a home. You can’t get those things from playing. You have to work first, so you get to do fun things later. School is where we learn discipline—a skill for working hard to be good, even when nobody is looking. When you do your homework because you’re supposed to, you are learning discipline. This is an important life skill.

Reason #2: You will always have problems.

Teachers teach you how to solve problems in school because the world has a lot of real problems. You want to learn as much as you can to prepare for the future. How many sandwiches can you make with one loaf of bread? How much bread do you need for lunches every week? How do you keep yourself from getting sick? How do we get electricity for lights, heat, and phones? Why do we keep some food in the refrigerator? Learning math, science, and other subjects is hard work, but it will help you get the answers to lots of questions you will have in life, so you always know what to do.

Reason #3: You are lucky.

You are so lucky to go to school. Some kids are too sick, and they can’t even go outside. They have to learn and play from their beds. They want to get better and go to school. In some parts of the world, there are kids whose parents don’t have enough money to let them play and go to school. Kids there have to go to work to get food and clothes. If you are lucky enough to go to school, you should be very glad. Learning can be more fun than you think. After you finish school, you could help other kids around the world have a better life. The world is waiting for kids like you to learn about it and help make it better.