A 13-Year Old Who Gets It

Following is letter I received from a young lady who attended a dinner I spoke at. I am sharing it with you because she is proof positive that there are young people who are concerned about our future. It is presented here unedited.
*********************

Dear Mr. Massie,

I had the pleasure of attending your symposiums yesterday. After the dinner, I got the chance to speak with you about the future for my generation. You said I had ‘made your night’ because I was concerned for my future at 13 years old.

I didn’t realize how few of us Millennials even care what we’ll be stepping into after high school and college. I am avidly involved in politics and the current events in our country. If Washington keeps spending like this, how much of my future income will I be able to keep? I’m still in 8th grade, barely a teenager, but even I know something needs to be done.

[adsanity id=8405 align=alignleft /]And it’s not just the debt they’re leaving us; it’s a poor education, too. Common Core supporters guarantee students will be college and career ready, which isn’t the case! Curriculum experts say that by the 7th grade, CC puts kids two years behind where the should be in Math. Common Core proposes that every child should learn at the same pace. If that’s the case, they might as well get rid of Calculus and other AP classes! I’m lucky, as my school still lets students who learn faster attend more challenging classes. We have many parents who are paying attention to what Common Core is doing to the school system. I’m in Algebra 1, a high school class. CC put out a textbook, if you could call it that. [My text] book gave no examples, and if you didn’t understand it, too bad. Your teacher isn’t there to teach, in fact, she’s encouraged by CC not to! Thankfully, my teacher still was morally encompassed enough to realize we weren’t learning and she needed to do something about it. What’s ridiculous is she risked her job by teaching us the traditional methods to solve problems! But some lessons were still confusing. Our teacher broke down in tears because she didn’t understand how the book was trying to teach us. If she, a teacher with 20 years of experience under her belt, didn’t understand it, how were we supposed to?

I really hope that someone can do something about this Common Core takeover. I am watching my mom do her part in the fight against CC. When you were speaking about starting up conversations wherever you are, I glanced at my mom, because she does that virtually everywhere! Before the primary, my mom engaged with all the politicians. She also likes writing to the candidates and elected officials, and doesn’t settle for their website email addresses. She gets their personal emails and sends them a weekly email. They know she knows the CC issues and what to do about them. It’s definitely interesting when a politician calls our house and asks to speak with my mother.

I want a future. I want to make a living without barely scraping by. I want to change what is happening to me, my generation, my classmates, and my siblings. If there is nothing left for my future, I fault the government and their ridiculous spending-$205 trillion unfunded expenses, outside of the $18 trillion we already owe. That kind of money doesn’t even exist on the entire planet!

I really enjoy learning about politics. I’ve watched and attended debates to learn more about the issues. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be a politician and make a difference? Because, honestly, could I really do worse than what’s going on now?

Why should my generation get any less of a chance than the people before us? I want to have a fighting chance! I don’t want to be born into debt and die in even more of it! Why can’t we have an equal possibility to thrive, not just survive?

We’re already swimming in debt; at what point do we start drowning?

Thank you for your time, Mr. Massie.

Sincerely, in hopes for a brighter future,

Katherine *********
8th grader[adsanity id=11817 align=alignnone /]