LAWRENCE — Students at South Lawrence East School plan to send President Barack Obama a piece of their mind.

As part of the Handwriting Without Tears program, all 506 students are submitting letters to Obama on Jan. 23, as both a way to convey sage advice and to practice their penmanship.

The national mass mailing, called "Mail to the Chief," is meant to draw attention to National Handwriting Day and to increase grade-school students' involvement in politics.

"A lot of the themes in these letters have kids worried about the economy and pollution," Principal Mary Toomey said. "I'm amazed at the level of thinking in these letters."

The letters serve as a clear reflection of our times.

"I think you should stop the war because we don't want more troops to die," wrote Jose Fernandez, a fourth-grader.

"My advice to you is to keep taxes low because the economy is going bad and people are losing their homes and their jobs," wrote Dalina Ly, a fellow classmate of Jose.

While all letters dealt with pressing issues, not all of them dealt with grim ones.

"I think we shouldn't have uniform policies," Janelys Torres wrote. "Uniform policies don't express our feelings."

Before mailing the letters to Obama, select students from all 24 classrooms will have the opportunity to share their writing Jan. 23, with Mayor Michael Sullivan and Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy in the school's library. Additionally, classes from different grades will partner up to share their letters with each other.

This is the second year South Lawrence East has participated in the Handwriting Without Tears program. The school is the only member of the program among all Lawrence elementary schools. Activities for the program usually take 10 minutes and consist of journalism, games, and short comprehension quizzes. Students have practiced writing their letters since December. Students at South Lawrence East begin cursive writing in the third grade.

Handwriting Without Tears was created in 1977 by therapist Jane Olsen after her son became emotionally distraught over his writing. In the past 30 years, the program has expanded internationally and covers penmanship training from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade.

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