To advocate for abolishing the death penalty, Eme Loucks, left, illustrated the financial and emotional costs. Her classmate Dante Ramos made a case for keeping the drinking age at 21.
How would you convince someone that college should be free? That the death penalty should be illegal? That concealed handguns should be permitted across the country?
Working with Methow Arts teaching artist Christa Culbert, Methow Valley Elementary sixth-graders tackled timely and sometimes contentious issues, making their case in attention-getting posters.
The students used statistics, metaphors and emotional appeals to persuade their audience. Jackson Darwood — one of several students to lobby for free college — divided his poster into four quadrants. He graphed two heartbeats, “one normal, and one crazy and out of control,” plus people “chilling” in one frame and “stressing” in another, to depict the effects of worrying about skyrocketing tuition.
The issue is very real for Darwood, who watches as his brother tries to pay for education and living expenses. “Taxes pay for elementary and high school — why not college?” Darwood said.
Sixth-grade teachers Carrie Fink and Tyler Slostad helped students choose and research the issues and most students considered several topics before settling on one. Because they had to research arguments on both sides of an issue and understand that there are always multiple viewpoints, some students ended up changing their minds, the teachers said.
Target audiences
Students had to identify their audience — for example, legislators, voters or their community — and the action they hoped to inspire, Slostad said. “They’re not trying to sway each other. It’s about taking the message to someone to make a difference in the world,” he said.
Among the topics students considered were whether gay marriage should be illegal, whether it’s OK to ban books, and whether there should be more restrictions on firearms.
The students had to illustrate the importance of the issue, Culbert said. For example, to advocate for a reduction in the use of plastic bottles, showing a fish that had swallowed plastic would have a greater impact than simply drawing a lot of bottles, she said.
The students took that to heart. Dante Ramos drew a conflagration, a car crash and discarded bottles to illustrate the importance of keeping the drinking age at 21. To support more background checks for gun purchasers, one student quoted Ronald Reagan saying, “An AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon.”
Health and elected officials across the country have been tempting people to get the COVID vaccine by offering cash prizes and baseball tickets. But Asher Sundt made a more straightforward pitch, tantalizing the viewer with an idyllic scene and a rainbow. “It’s such a big issue. I wanted to make it feel like the vaccine is bringing us happiness, and bringing more color into the world,” Sundt said.
Ingrid Venable drew hands against a wall in a pleading, almost prayerful pose to advocate for an end to family separations and the right for undocumented immigrants to become citizens.
Eme Loucks appealed to emotions and fiscal responsibility in her vividly illustrated poster to make a case for abolishing the death penalty.
Téa Hoffman’s poster supports the right for trans people to be allowed to play sports on a team that aligns with their identity. Hoffman made the case using a assemblage of signs with messages like “’We the people’ means everyone” and “The future isn’t binary.”
The posters were displayed at the sixth-graders’ moving up ceremonies and may be exhibited around town, Fink said.
