All kids should have snacks at school. When kids are hungry, they don’t want to do anything. Teachers should give us snacks, because not all kids can their own snacks.

All kids should have snacks at school. When kids are hungry, they don’t want to do anything. Teachers should give us snacks, because not all kids can their own snacks.

RH’DARIUS HARRELL, 9

Families should stop being mean to one another. My older brother should play with me, because it is not fair that he only hangs with his friends.

KARSYN ALLEN, 9

We should have more love than hate in the world, because it would be peaceful. People will feel safe and not in danger.

I think that the Confederate statues should come down, because they are basically a representation of slavery. I believe that everyone is the same and that the Confederate statues are saying the very opposite. Although the statues are part of history, not all
history Is good.

PRESLEY THOMPSON, 9

Public schools need more interpreters for deaf kids. Each school needs at least three
interpreters in case one interpreter become sick. As a deaf person, I need American
Sign Language. If there were no interpreters, I wouldn’t be able to hear. Writing back and forth is what I would do. Writing is difficult. It would be a quiet day.

SANIYA CABELL, 9

I think it should be illegal to be vegan, because they can’t be trusted-no eggs, no cheese and sometimes no butter? People may say they disagree, because it’s a little mean, but the meat products taste good. Animal products are greasy goodness. There should
be more and more eaters. There should be no vegans.

LARIMA JACKSON, 9

I am mad that there was a shooting in Las Vegas. The people who work in hotels should
check the suitcases for guns. bombs and other stuff. If people want to protect themselves, they should not use guns, because guns kill people.

DAKOTA MAWYER, 10

I think animals should be treated like humans. People should be kind to them and give them nice homes, food and water.

SNYDER PATE, 9

I think we should stop air pollution. I think we should use electric cars and house vehicles. People should use horse carriages for two reasons: It won’t use any energy except the horse‘s, and it’ll be safer. because the horses will crash, instead of us, and because the horses are slower than regular cars. This way, the air won‘t be polluted.

RAFFI CHEN, 9

I think that kids should get at least 10 hours of sleep every night, because it is healthy for your body to get a full night of sleep for the next day. The human body needs
enough sleep to stay active and energized every day. What should we do about it? Well, I think that everyone should try to set an earlier sleep time before their usual bedtimes.

RYLEIGH HARRINGTON, 9

My opinion is that not enough people clean up trash! When people don’t pick up trash, it
eventually falls into the ocean, and animals can choke on the trash, and animals will get sick. If there is too much trash, the earth will decay, and it is not good for us. Even if you don’t want to pick up trash, you should!

VIRGINIA SANTIAGO, 9

My school should have a basketball team. My friends and I like to play basketball and
exercise. It teaches you go get along with people, even people you don’t like, because you’re on the same team, so you’re working together. It helps makes you healthy and strong.

JAWARREN RUCKER, 9

People whoud not call dogs dumb, because dogs don’t know better. Dogs can’t understand people. Yelling at dogs makes them scared. There are people who treat animals badly because they have a bad life.

KINGSTON SMITH, 9

I think there should be no vacation from school, because your brain gets dumber by the day. Instead of a vacation, we should do more homework, math, reading, and science, so you can smarter. Instead of talking long trips, you could go the beach for two days
and come back.

GARRETT WILLIAMS, 9

I think that people should be nicer to other people. It is not fun being bullied by other kids. People get hurt by being bullied. They should stick up for the people who are
being bullied.

NOORDIN IDRIS, 9

People shouldn’t just be pushed to the ground by a bully and not tell the teacher or their parent. If you don’t the bully will do it again and again and again , and they won’t stop.

HARRISON GAYE, 9

Have you ever seen trash just lying out in the middle of nowhere? Pick it up. You can save an animal’s life just by picking up a candy wrapper. Also, there are such things as
garbage patches. They are big patches of a garbage floating in the ocean. A solution to this problem is to make a program that will dump trash into space. It’s a crazy idea,
but it will get rid of trash from Earth without polluting. So, it’s basically like throwing trash into an endless pit. And also we might not even have to dump trash into space. If we only use reusable items, we will have no trash.

JACK WIELAR, 9

FOR EACH ISSUE of The New York Times for Kids, we‘ll be visiting a different public-school class somewhere in the United States. In the previous issue, the class was in Queens. N.Y. For this issue, we went to the Linsay Wayland’s fourth-grade class at Johnson Elementary School in Charlottesville, Va, Wayland, Aaron Retica(an editor who works on The Times‘s opinion pages) and I talked to the students about the difference between a reported story and an opinion. Then we asked students to come up with a subject they felg passionately about and to write an opinion of their own. They wrote about all kinds of subjects, including veganism, pollution, vacations, Conferderate statutes and in school interpreters of deaf students. Here are short excerpts from what they wrote. What do you feel most passionately about? Consider putting your opinion into words to practice sharpening your argument and persuading readers.

BY CAITLIN ROPER