First-graders offer advice to Barack Obama

WAUWATOSA, Wis., Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Letters to President-elect Barack Obama from first-graders in Wisconsin include this advice: "Don't talk to strangers."

That was the sage advice of Keuane Gilbert, who joined classmates at Jefferson Elementary School in Wauwatosa in drafting presidential correspondence, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Wednesday.

The project is part of a national effort by Handwriting Without Tears -- a group which encourages penmanship in a digital world. The letter was the first that some of the Jefferson first-graders had ever written, the Sentinel reported.

"I hope that you will stop war because we need peace and quiet," wrote McKenna Tucker, while Zyan Murphy wrote, "I hope that you can clean the Earth because I don't want to step on glass."