Here are my favorite parts of  some of the speeches from my 5th and 6th graders...

"In school everyone can see the lonely student. Maybe he doesn't have friends. That person may be very hurt but his family and teachers cannot heal his hurt. The hurt is caused by a lack of friendship, so we need to heal his hurt with friendship."

"When I wrote this essay, I remembered one public tv advertisement. In that public tv advertisement, there was a wonderful line that said, 'we multiply the pleasure, we divide the sad, we plus the happiness, and we minus the misery with friends.' I felt a deep impression after reading this. I think friends can give us these feelings, so I think we all need friendships."

"You might think the most important thing would be something we can see or touch but the most important thing to me is something we cannot see and we cannot touch. However, it could be the most important thing to all of you as well."

"...if I have a positive mind, it can make other people around me happy. I learned this from my grandfather. He said if a person has a positive mind, he makes a yellow light from inside his body. This yellow light has a power to make other people around me happy as well."

"He always gives me the present of happiness"

"Time always passes us by and never returns. It never gives me or anyone a second chance."

"My dream is very important to me because it is the engine that drives my life."