Comments on I, Anonymous: It's Elementary—The Bonanza Continues to Continue

Word.

Are these kids coming up with the topics themselves? The first two I thought were kid-like enough but... what elementary student is angry about the tobacco industry?

I bet they drilled out topics and the teacher wrote them on the board. How they were assigned, I'm not sure, but one thing I'm sure of is no child would ever voluntarily write about telemarketers (unless they couldn't think of anything and their parents filled them in with a topic).

Exaggerated, yes. But bitter?

I just figured that commercials about dying from lung cancer don't resonate with the kids these days, so maybe the "You'll stink and have nasty teeth" approach will.

It's not so much about getting kids to quit as it is keeping them from starting, right?

I'm soooo watching Thank You For Smoking again this weekend.

Re: 2 & 3: The assignment question is a good one. I have no idea idea what the specifics were. The only clue I have is that some of the entries have things like "Home room" and "final draft" in the upper left corner.

This letter rings of "Quit teasing my mom!"

Hmmm...

I'm with Katelyn. These are beginning to look suspicious. The first few looked totally legit. But I'm dubious of these last two. Yes, telemarketers are asswipes, and yes, the new anti-smoking campaign is a bit over the top. But neither of these sound like thoughts that would be at the forefront of a 9 year old.

I think the writer should realize that teenagers don't think of long term consequences like lung cancer. Many smokers blow it off with, "You gotta go sometime." By targeting adolescents with immediate social pariah status, it makes the consequences more real, and more present.

And really, smokers are undateable and broke. I won't even go down on a smoker. Their cum tastes bad.

@8: we mustn't forget that the authors include middle schoolers which i believe range from 12 - 14yrs. old? i know at that age, anti-smoking was being drilled into my impressionable mind.

The teacher probably gave them the assignment and said pick something on your own or pick something from this list on the board.

David is picking what he thinks are the best ones, and I think most of what we are reading is from the 8th grade, so this one could have been written by a 15 or 16 year old.

I would hope a 15 or 16-year-old wasn't still in 8th grade. 8th graders where I went to school were 13/14 years old.