This was the essay topic that was recently addressed by students from across the Unit-ed States as they responded to the Veterans Of Foreign Wars Voice of Democracy Es-say Contest for this year. The essay topic gave high school students the opportunity to express what they think about this question. This years topic provided lots of

possibilities for student view points. This was especially so in today’s world with so much social and cultural conflict, the constant barrage of mean and uncaring comments, political distrust, the words of hate and the lack of acceptance of others, as well as a lack of positive role models to follow. Their response to this essay question leads us to better see where the future lies for our young people.

You might wonder where this specific essay topic comes from. The topic is chosen by the National V.F.W. Commander. Each year the V.F.W. sponsors a national essay con-test that involves writing a 3-5 minute essay about a very specific topic. The essay is judged on originality, content and delivery. Each year a local contest is held to deter-mine who will move on to regional competition and then eventually on to state competition in Pierre. The regional winners are royally treated by the State V.F.W. organization with visits to the Capital, recognition by our state legislature and concluding with a special supper and a presentation of who will represent our state in Washington, D.C. in the national competition.

As a school counselor, prior to 1996, I was aware that there was a V.F.W. essay contest and would routinely pass the information along to any interested high school student and tell them they should look into it if they wanted to. Unfortunately at the time, that was about all my involvement produced. What I did not realize at the time was the “little encouragement” from me produced and influenced the “little involvement” by our students. As a result only about three to four students ever participated. That was true up until my own daughter wrote her essay for the competition. The next thing I knew our daughter won the local contest, then the region and eventually the state competition. I have to admit that caused me to really sit up and take serious notice as to what I had been doing and not doing as I saw how it positively affected her future opportunities. Winning the state competition took her to Washington, D.C. for the national completion, along with the opportunity to meet our Congressional and Senatorial representatives, several famous athletes, entertainment celebrities, actors and authors. There were also winners from across the nation to meet and lots of college scholarship money awarded. I came back to Wagner with a completely different attitude about what opportunities really were available to our students, but had been overlooked so it became important to changed how it was approached. What had caused the lack of student participation be-fore this date was my own ignorance. My ignorance and lack of interest helped to inadvertently deprive our students of the knowledge and importance that this essay contest involved.

What was learned and what changed? I realized our students were being short changed by this lack of understanding by myself and others and as a result sought seri-ous change in how we should approach this kind of opportunity in the future. Fortunate-ly the school administration agreed this needed to be done as well. From that point on it was obvious a key player would be the high school English teachers who could use the national essay theme as one of their writing assignments during the year. Not just for grading sake, but a chance to provide their students with the opportunity to also com-pete for a college scholarship as well. Creating opportunity beyond the grade book be-came an important issue and for good reason. At the very least, the essay topic pro-vides a way for students to express their patriotic views about our country. Something that was rarely done and quite possibly long over due in our students educational growth. Changing the approach from a “no or low interest and encouragement” ap-proach, to making it part of the writing process helped produce better outcomes. Since this approach began, Wagner has increased the total number of students who have been able to move on to regional competition which is providing a valuable lesson in life for our students. This is primarily thanks to the English teachers who also realized the value of going beyond the grade book with their writing assignments

And now we arrive at “What Makes America Great” and what this year’s topic produced. A total of 80 plus students participated and six students qualified for regional competi-tion compared to only the one finalist we used to have years ago. Of the group of re-gional winners one is chosen to move on to state competition and that proved to be a Wagner student this year. Increased numbers often equals increased chances for a winner. Increased knowledge and encouragement often equals increased participation, which is also a good lesson learned by students and educators alike.

And what does all of this have to do with the future as I stated in the beginning? From the entries from the Wagner essays, the vast majority of students repeatedly stated what made America great was “our diversity”. As I look back over the past years, I find myself somewhat surprised to hear students see diversity as what makes us great. To see that this was stated over and over again by so many different students in their es-says makes me wonder, why diversity? I do not remember this kind of thought ever be-ing stated 40 years, 30 years, 20 years or even 10 years ago. What is different? What has changed? Maybe the answer to this does not really matter. Maybe what matters most is the fact that things have changed for the better. The reality is the world does not only look like the single person standing in front of the mirror. Maybe these students realize this and understand how it only makes us all better. For myself, seeing this stat-ed makes me proud of our young people. It says their view of the world will only make them more successful and better prepared for tomorrow’s world. This should be some-thing we can all feel great about. Lots of parents must be doing a better job than they have been give credit for. What makes America great? That is a great question for all of us to reflect on. What is your answer to this question? Is it different and why? Re-gardless, I believe we are leaving the future to a great group of people who will follow us. I can there for say “our kids our lucky, lucky us and lucky Wagner”.