作者： chenchen

这封信由 Jesuit High School in Portland, Ore  17 岁的露西·罗伯 （Lucy Robb） 撰写，是学习网络学生公开信竞赛的前 9 名获奖者之一，我们收到了 8,065 份参赛作品。

Dear American Lawn Owner,

Imagine this for a moment:

PUT-PUT-PUT! A lawn mower revs its engine and prepares to do its worst. The fuming machine plows over a vast expanse of pristine grass, spewing smog into the air. In front of a white picket fence, green growing turf stretches in great swathes across a front yard.

Perfectly manicured, this lawn has long been the hallmark of the American dream. This dream, however, bears carbon emissions, pesticides, and a lack of diversity. The difficulty of maintaining 40 million acres of lawn across the United States is evident. Annually, 800 million gallons of gas are guzzled solely for lawn mower fuel.

When it comes to front yards, grass is not your only option. Through the many regions of America, native plants grow independently and support their ecosystems. These plants can be incorporated into our own homes as well. Grass lawns should be gradually phased out and replaced with native plants and ground cover.

Some may lump together native plants and weeds, calling this heterogeneous array of botanical life unappealing to the eye. On the contrary, native plants are not all the same as pesky shrubs that spring up when you least expect them. These noninvasive plants and ground covers come in a variety of vibrant hues and sizes. As a yard owner, you can cultivate beauty through unique native plants of your choice.

Native plants have more benefits than simply being pretty to look at. They foster diversity and support ecosystems. The New York Times details how incorporating naturally occurring species of plants into front lawns can foster thriving ecosystems, among other benefits.

By planting native flora, we can pave the way for a more sustainable future. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 17,532 gallons of water are used by the average household in America each year, just for landscaping irrigation. With native plants, this worry dissipates. Many indigenous plants are able to sustain themselves during dry spells with barely any water.

After this vegetation has been planted, there is little that a homeowner must do for maintenance within their own yard. Native plant lawns only need to be cut twice a year, as opposed to the 25-plus times a year that grass lawns are mowed on average in America. They also thrive in their indigenous habitats, slashing the needs for fertilizers and maintenance.

Beauty and diversity are two intrinsic characteristics of a healthy, happy, and aesthetically-pleasing yard. With the installation of these mini native ecosystems, a bit of botanical life can be incorporated into your daily regime, simultaneously saving you money and helping the Earth.

UnbeLEAFably yours,
Lucy Robb

Works Cited

Briggs, Parker. Native Species Make Your Lawn Truly Green. Inkwell, 6 March 2020.

Cox, Stan. HOAs Often Ban Eco-Friendly Practices as Unaesthetic. Eco-Architecture | Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints. Greenhaven Press, 2008.

D’Costa, Krystal. The American Obsession with Lawns. Scientific American, 3 May 2017.

Roach, Margaret. A Viable Alternative to Conventional Lawn? Cornell May Have Found One. New York Times, 13 Sept. 2023.

Trinklein, David. April Showers Bring May Lawn Mowers. University of Missouri Integrated Pest Management, 22 May 2023.

Water-Wise NW Native Plants. Swansons Nursery (website).

这封信由 The Winsor School in Boston 的 16 岁的 Leela Uppaluri 撰写，是 The Learning Network 学生公开信竞赛的前 9 名获奖者之一，我们收到了 8,065 份参赛作品。

Dear Classmates,

You should know that I am not autistic. But growing up just 16 months younger than my autistic brother has given me a front-row seat to how this condition is viewed by many of you. In school, we are surrounded by values of education and inclusion, but these values don’t seem to translate to disability awareness.

Though only four years old, I remember like it was yesterday when my mom told me that my brother is autistic. How she whispered the word “autism” to me, as if she was shielding me from a four-letter word, hoping to protect me from classmates who might later mimic and bully my brother. In 6th grade I remember hearing many of you label autism a “disease.” A disease connotes something wrong with a person, something needing to be fixed. Unfortunately, these constructs outline how we have all grown up thinking about autism.

Fast forward to 9th grade — I have even heard some of you use the “r” slur or the words “moron” or “lame” jokingly. And I’ve also grown up in a world where when you don’t do so well on a math test one of you might joke “are you autistic?” Whenever I hear these insults, I come home angry. Angry because you use an important part of my brother’s identity, who he is, as a put-down. When I’ve told you that you are being ableist, you’ve called me “sensitive.” Though you speak naïvely, you devalue my brother and those like him when you use such language.

The truth is, one in 36 of us is diagnosed with autism. Moreover, people with disabilities are the largest minority group in the United States, and as new disability categories within neurodiversity emerge and grow, so does that percentage. Make no mistake — autism is in all of our classrooms, and we must move toward true acceptance now.

How do we achieve acceptance? Not being ableist is a start. Join a disability advisory group in your school to learn why using language like the “r” slur is not appropriate. Avoid language like “low functioning” that is demeaning and devaluing to some of your peers and learn how to treat and include your autistic peers as you would want to be treated and included. Last, applaud neurodivergence instead of making excuses for it. In other words, the next time you see my brother sway to “Hey Jude” in the aisle of a grocery store or wear headphones to block out sensory overload at California Pizza Kitchen, don’t stare! Just smile. By doing so, you are showing how you accept him and other autistic people for who they are.

Sincerely,
Leela Uppaluri

Works Cited

Data & Statistics on Autism Spectrum Disorder.”Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4 April 2023.

Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. Becoming Disabled. The New York Times, 19 Aug. 2016.

这封信是Seoul Foreign School in Seoul的16岁的贾斯汀·金（Justin Kim）写的，是学习网络学生公开信竞赛的前9名获奖者之一，我们收到了8,065份参赛作品。

Dear Midjourney,

I’m writing this letter to report a crime — one which you’ve committed against me and my fellow artists. Your programs do not create, but merely plunder human creation in order to amalgamate your horrid handiwork.

This is robbery, plain and simple. All artists “take” inspiration, but you seem to have a habit of “taking” entire works and making monsters of them. As artist and illustrator Jackie Ferrentino put it, “A.I. programs scrape human artists’ work to Frankenstein them into a new creation.”

In doing so, your every action disregards artistic convention and robs thousands of their livelihoods. Thus, your current “artistic” practice “devalue[s] the human labor” so inherent to mankind’s God-given gift for creation, as journalists Julia Rothman and Shaina Feinberg aptly described in their 2022 New York Times article.

Of course, this is not to say that your work possesses no potential value. Jason M. Allen of Pueblo West, Colo., claimed that “Art is dead,” and that “humans lost.” His Midjourney-sourced work is certainly impressive: your “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial” won Mr. Allen an award at the Colorado State Fair in 2022. Arguments have been made in favor of your creative use.

We all know that art is more than just paint on a canvas. In the early days of photography, then too did artists predict creative expression would perish. Perhaps you are also merely a new medium for artistic creation. But if so, you must be bound by the same code as us. Therefore, we artists declare: if you are here to stay, you will be leashed.

Regulatory action remains in flux, but good people in good governments are already making progress. The European Union has successfully passed the world’s first major act to regulate A.I. Across the sea, the United States Congress is already debating the feasibility of an “A.I. Bill of Rights.”

The E.U.’s resolution demands a clear definition for A.I., dividing your functions into categories of risk. It does not, at least yet, stipulate that you cite your sources like the rest of us. I acknowledge that may be impossible, given the sheer number of works you steal from to assemble your handiwork, but that does not mean you will be allowed to purloin unabated. Even now, laws are being written that will require you to yield your stolen source material.

Certainly, your work improves by the day. You have grown uncannily good at imitating man. Some would argue you could even replace man. But that just means you must be subject to the same laws as the rest of us. So like any other, you have the right to remain silent. Like any other, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.

I wish you well in your trial,
Justin

Works Cited

Blueprint for an A.I. Bill of Rights: Making Automated Systems Work For the American People. Whitehouse.gov

E.U. A.I Act: First Regulation on Artificial Intelligence. European Parliament (Website). Updated 18 June 2024.

Kang, Cecilia and Satariano, Adam. Five Ways A.I. Could Be Regulated. The New York Times, 6 Dec. 2023.

Roose, Kevin. An A.I.-Generated Picture Won an Art Prize. Artists Aren’t Happy. The New York Times, 2 Sept. 2022.

Rothman, Julia and Feinberg, Shaina. Human Artists Take on Their New Robot Competition. The New York Times, 23 Dec. 2022.

这封信的作者是Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Conn.的 15 岁的艾玛·王 （Emma Wang），她是学习网络学生公开信竞赛的前 9 名获奖者之一，我们收到了 8,065 份参赛作品。

Dear Singapore Government,

My memories of Singapore make me who I am, a proud citizen of a beautiful country. However, there is one part of Singapore’s past that no citizen is proud of: colonialism. So, I am asking you to take down the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles.

With the second highest G.D.P. per capita in the world, Singapore’s robust economy is often used to justify its colonial past. The misguided notion that British imperialists brought “Western know-how” to build our prosperous society is problematic, as it glorifies colonization and a false notion of Western superiority.

In 1963, when Singapore gained its independence, “nearly 70 percent of the population lived in slums,” according to SG101, a government website that tells the story of Singapore’s journey as a nation. Britain left us with almost no local industry, while unemployment rates hovered in the double digits. The stark contrast of this despair with Singapore’s current success is not a result of British imperialism — it is an astonishing rebound from it.

Located south of the Straits of Malacca, Singapore’s natural deep-sea ports place it at the crossroads between two important shipping channels. Now, with more than 5,000 maritime companies and over 130 international shipping groups, Singapore’s ports are among the busiest in the world. These ports were able to sustain Singapore’s economy in a fundamental way after independence, and before colonization; Britain simply saw this potential and exploited it to its advantage.

Singapore also created a decolonization plan with impressive urgency and effectiveness. As SG101 describes, “While some newly independent nations with large domestic markets were adopting protectionist policies — ejecting foreign companies, slashing imports, and manufacturing their own products for the domestic market — Singapore had to go against the grain and open our borders to foreign investors.” This unique, and brave, policy allowed Singapore to become economically self-reliant. Clearly, Singapore’s economic success is not simply a continuation of British ideologies, but rather the country’s strategy for decolonization and economic independence.

Colonial influence will always be our past, but do we need to celebrate it in the present? The statue of Sir Stamford Raffles encourages problematic justifications of colonialism, obscuring Singapore’s success. The original statue stands in front of Empress Place, with a plaque that reads “This tablet to the memory of Sir Stamford Raffles, to whose foresight and genius Singapore owes its existence and prosperity ….” Owes? The statue misleadingly attributes Singapore’s hard-won prosperity to him, “the founder,” and British imperialism.

As The New York Times reported, many statues in the U.S. are being removed, including those of former slave owners, racists, and violent conquistadors. Singapore should follow this example. We, as a country, need to give ourselves credit for our astonishingly successful decolonization efforts, instead of undermining those triumphs, diminishing our resilience with a towering figure of our conquistador.

With respect,
Emma

Works Cited

Crabtree, James. Five Chart History of Post-Colonial Asia. Financial Times. Last modified 29 Aug. 2014.

Gaumont British Instructional. Singapore, A Study of A Port. Directed by Brian Salt. 1954.

Mindur, Maciej. Significance of the Port of Singapore Against the Country’s Economic Growth. Scientific Journal of Silesian University of Technology. Series Transport 106 (2020): 107-121.

The New York Times. How Statues Are Falling Around the World. 24 June 2020.

1959-1965: Early Economic Strategies. SG101.

Rodrigue, Jean-Paul. Maritime Shipping Routes and Strategic Locations. Map. Port Economics Management.

Statue of Stamford Raffles. National Library Board.

Teck-Wong Soon, and William A. Stoever. Foreign Investment and Economic Development in Singapore: A Policy-Oriented Approach. The Journal of Developing Areas 30, no. 3 (1996): 317–40.

Vasagar, Jeevan. Can Colonialism Have Benefits? Look at Singapore. The Guardian. Last modified 4 Jan. 2018.

White, Nicholas J. The Settlement of Decolonization and Post-Colonial Economic Development: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore Compared. Bijdragen Tot de Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde 173, no. ⅔ (2017): 208–41.

这封信由 Byram Hills High School in Armonk, N.Y.  17 岁的凯西·戈德斯坦 （Casey Goldstein） 撰写，是学习网络学生公开信竞赛的前 9 名获奖者之一，我们收到了 8,065 份参赛作品。

Dear New York State Senators,

Let me make myself clear that I did not want hearing aids. “Social suicide,” as my sister described it. Arriving at school with new glasses hails compliments from friends or teachers, but when you come to school with new hearing aids, the best compliment is none. You hope no one notices them and even grow out your hair for full coverage.

When I found out that I needed hearing aids during my junior year of high school, I simply refused. But, in the following weeks, I began to notice how many times I said “What?” in conversations, how many frustrated friends stared back at me for interrupting the story yet again. I became aware of the missed lunchtime drama that unfolded in muted discourse around me as I retreated inside my head with only pieces of conversations I understood. I was excluded, a non-participatory, lonely friend adapting to a fragmented life. I became aware that hearing aids were no longer an option I could refuse.

That’s when I learned that to most insurance companies, hearing aids are an option they can refuse, and they do. The same device with the power to reorganize brain pathways that have been altered due to hearing loss is deemed as not medically necessary, considered equal to cosmetic surgeries. No state mandates in New York require non-Medicaid insurance support for hearing aids. Why, then, are there over 25 other states that mandate specific coverage for hearing aids, whether for a certain age or amount of coverage, while New York has nothing?

There was a glimmer of hope on Oct. 17, 2022, when the F.D.A. introduced cheaper over-the-counter hearing aids, yet they were not made for children and are even potentially harmful to them. That means, currently, anyone under the age of 18 living in New York has no other option; their family needs to muster up thousands of dollars for hearing aids, or they try to get through their 18 years without the device essential for learning and development.

There is currently a bill in the New York State Senate Committee that “requires all insurance policies to provide coverage for medically necessary hearing aids for children less than 18 years of age.” I implore you, as a child who has experienced firsthand the transformative power of hearing aids, that you support this bill and its respective fight unequivocally. In a world full of high social anxiety, there is no reason why any child should feel further socially isolated or inferior in intelligence simply because they are denied the fundamental right to hear. I was there, and hearing aids changed my life. Now, I ask that you let them change the lives of all the others.

Sincerely,
Casey Goldstein

Works Cited

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. State Insurance Mandates for Hearing Aids. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 5 March 2024.

Boylan, Jennifer Finney. Opinion | Glasses Are Cool. Why Aren’t Hearing Aids? The New York Times, 31 Oct. 2017.

Dragan, Lauren. Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids Could Finally Give People an Affordable, Convenient Hearing Solution. The New York Times, 22 Aug. 2022.

Gatta, Frances. Are Hearing Aids Covered By Insurance In 2024? Forbes, 12 Sept. 2023.

Medical Devices; Ear, Nose, and Throat Devices; Establishing Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids. Federal Register, 17 Aug. 2022.

NY State Senate Bill 2023-S4929. The New York State Senate, 17 Feb. 2023.

这封信由 澳大利亚 Geelong Geelong Grammar School 13 岁的 Alexis Rippon 撰写，是学生公开信竞赛的前 9 名获奖者之一，我们收到了 8,065 份参赛作品。

G’day Warner Brothers,

You may be a global leader in the entertainment industry, but I’d like to highlight how you’ve been unjust toward a super cute, yet awkwardly destructive, native Australian creature.

In 1954, you created the cartoon character Taz. He is such a well-known and devious creature and became an iconic member of the Looney Tunes family. So popular was Taz that you trademarked him decades ago. Essentially, since then, you have prohibited anyone from using the name or images that resemble Taz. But did you know that Taz is based on a real animal, a renowned carnivorous marsupial from Down Under? Taz is a Tasmanian devil.

Tasmania is a small island state off the south coast of Australia, so small that Manhattan’s population is over three times the size. And on this island lives the Tasmanian devil. The devil is iconically Australian and is not only emblematic to the island state, but to all Aussies. When I say the devil lives in Tasmania, I should emphasize that the species is fast becoming critically endangered. The devil population is receding rapidly because of an incurable facial tumor disease. It’s a race to save the species.

Because of your trademark, the devil’s name now cannot be used without agreement from you. This issue was ignited recently because there is a new team entering our Australian Football League competition. The team will be from Tasmania and will be the state’s first-ever team to play in our national competition. So, the obvious choice was to call them the Tasmanian Devils. But that idea was obstructed because of your intellectual property entitlements. Your obnoxiousness led to a stoush between you and the A.F.L. because your corporate greed denied us of what is rightfully ours.

Your $20-billion-dollar empire has profiteered for decades off our beloved native species that has been in existence for over 20,000 years. The least you could do is make a meaningful financial contribution to fund conservation and research to help save the devil population. I think it is now time for you to “save face” and demonstrate your corporate social responsibility before it is too late, and the devil is gone.

From Alexis Rippon, a 13-year-old animal lover

Works Cited

Frost, Natasha. Australia vs. Warner Bros.?. The New York Times. 5 May 2023.

University of Tasmania. Save the Tasmanian Devil Appeal. 10 Jan. 2024.