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You know that your students have a lot of opinions. Getting them to write those opinions in a logical and succinct way can be tough. One of the best ways to introduce opinion writing is to model how beloved authors share their opinions through the use of mentor texts. The list below includes some tried and true mentor texts along with a few that may be new to you. No matter which book(s) you choose, your students will be laughing the whole time they're learning!

What Are Mentor Texts?

Mentor texts are pieces of writing that are presented to your students as good examples of a specific skill. They can be used to model everything from excellent uses of setting to our focus in this blog post, opinion writing.

Note: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. If you click and purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

The main character Alex wants an Iguana and spends the book laying out his arguments for why his mom should let him get one. The comparison between Alex's opinion of life with an iguana and what his mom thinks life with an iguana will be is hilarious.

Opinion writing tricks the author uses in this book...

In "I Wanna Iguana," Karen Kaufman Orloff cleverly uses opinion writing tricks to portray a kid's persuasive attempts to get his mom to agree to a pet iguana. It demonstrates how to build a convincing argument, appeal to emotions, and address objections in a way that's engaging and easy for kids to relate to.

There is a reason that this book is one that you will hear about anytime opinion writing is brought up. It's a classic! It's a story about two battling opinions. A boy thinks ants are for squishing and the ant disagrees.

Opinion writing tricks the author uses in this book...

"Hey, Little Ant" by Phillip and Hannah Hoose prompts you to ponder how we handle bugs. It throws out questions and tells a story that makes you go, "Huh, maybe I should be nicer to ants." With its back-and-forth chat between the kid and the ant and its catchy lines, it's like a sneaky way to get you thinking about being fair to all critters.

A bear at a campground LOVES the food that campers leave but a park ranger has a very different opinion. Your students will enjoy hearing a story about two characters with such hilariously different opinions.

Opinion writing tricks the author uses in this book...

In "Don't Feed the Bear" Kathleen Doherty communicates the importance of respecting wildlife and following rules through its narrative about a girl named Rosie who encounters a bear. The story serves as a reminder about conservation and responsible behavior in natural environments.

Is it a duck or is it a rabbit?! This book is a great way to introduce the idea of arguing to support your opinion through the use of kid-friendly optical illusion.

Opinion writing tricks the author uses in this book...

"Duck! Rabbit!" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld is like a fun debate over whether you see a duck or a rabbit in the same picture. They use drawings and arguments from both sides to make you think about how you see things. It's all playful and funny, but it gets you talking about different points of view and how we see stuff differently.

If your students are anything like mine they LOVE the Pigeon book series. Pigeon is very opinionated about the fact that he is not tired and wants to stay up.

Opinion writing tricks the author uses in this book...

In "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!" by Mo Willems, the author cleverly gets readers involved in convincing the pigeon to go to bed. Through humorous interactions and persuasive arguments, Willems subtly emphasizes the importance of bedtime routines. It's a fun way of sharing the message that it's best for everyone to hit the hay on time.

Introduce opinion writing with this fantastic mentor text. A boy thinks that a stegosaurus would be the best pet. He then supports his opinion, just like we're trying to get our students to do!

Opinion writing tricks the author uses in this book...

"Can I Have A Stegosaurus, Mom? Can I? Please?!" by Lois G. Grambling utilizes persuasive techniques to engage young readers in a humorous conversation about owning a pet dinosaur. Through a back-and-forth exchange, the book encourages critical thinking and prompts readers to consider both sides of the argument. Ultimately, it serves as a playful exploration of the negotiation process between children and parents.

Your students might think that a pig parade is a good idea but they're wrong. This book is a great example of using support to back up an opinion.

Opinion writing tricks the author uses in this book...

In "A Pig Parade is a Terrible Idea" by Michael Ian Black and Kevin Hawkes, the authors express their opinion about the feasibility of a pig parade through humor and exaggeration. By showcasing the potential chaos and absurdity of the idea, they effectively persuade readers that organizing such an event would be impractical and chaotic.

A girl wants, no NEEDS to get her ears pierced. At least, that's her opinion. Listen to all of her arguments in this book!

Opinion writing tricks the author uses in this book...

In "Earrings!" by Judith Viorst, the author uses a child's perspective to express the desire for earrings, depicting her efforts to persuade her parents. Through relatable storytelling, Viorst communicates her opinion that children should be allowed to express themselves through accessories, showcasing the importance of self-expression and negotiation in family dynamics.

Written by the same author as Can I Have A Stegasaurus, Mom? Can I? Please!? A boy thinks that a pterdodactly would be awesome to bring to school. Follow along as he finds creative ways to support his opinion.

Opinion writing tricks the author uses in this book...

In "Can I Bring My Pterodactyl to School, Ms. Johnson?" by Lois G. Grambling, the author humorously portrays a child's persistent plea to bring unconventional pets to school. Through witty dialogue and imaginative scenarios, Grambling encourages readers to consider the balance between rules and creativity in educational settings, suggesting that flexibility can lead to positive outcomes.

Dennis and Mellie decide to write a very thorough, and fun, essay about their desire to get a dog. This is a great mentor text because of the variety and depth of their support for owning a dog.

Opinion writing tricks the author uses in this book...

In "I Want A Dog: My Opinion Essay" by Darcy Pattison, the main character is laying out all the reasons why they need a dog. They're making a strong case, using logic and emotions to persuade. Pattison's showing how kids can use their words to get what they want, while also getting readers to think about having a pet.

Kelly has an opinion- red is the best. The red mittens are better. Her red stockings are better. Her red boots are better. Red is simply the best and she lists a lot of great reasons why her opinion is right.

Opinion writing tricks the author uses in this book...

In "Red is Best" Kathy Stinson communicates, through vivid descriptions and enthusiastic reasoning, the child's belief that red is superior. With relatable examples and repetition of the phrase "Red is best," Stinson engages readers in celebrating personal preferences while highlighting the power of conviction.

I bet if you ask your students with siblings who their parent's favorite kid is that they would have a pretty strong opinion, just like "The Great One" in this hilarious book of sibling rivalry.

Opinion writing tricks the author uses in this book...

In "The Pain and The Great One" by Judy Blume, the author presents the differing opinions of siblings, known as the "Pain" and the "Great One," through their alternating perspectives. Through their dialogue and inner thoughts, Blume effectively conveys their contrasting views on sibling rivalry and family dynamics, encouraging readers to consider multiple viewpoints and fostering empathy between siblings.

This book can lead to a highly engaging writing prompt for your students, "what is the best pet?" This is a funny book about Elizabeth who is trying to form her own opinion on the topic!

Opinion writing tricks the author uses in this book...

In "The Perfect Pet" by Margie Palatini, the protagonist strongly desires the perfect pet, which drives the humorous and exaggerated narrative. Through the main character's persuasive arguments and the comical reactions of family members, Palatini engages readers in a lighthearted exploration of individual preferences and the quest for fulfillment.

What's wrong with cows that can type? It gives them the chance to share all their opinions with the farmer! Not only do they have opinions but so do a lot of the other animals on the farm.

Opinion writing tricks the author uses in this book...

In "Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type" by Doreen Cronin, the cows are real characters, typing away on a typewriter to ask for better conditions. Through their funny antics, the author shows how working together and speaking up can make a difference. It's a cute story that also gets you thinking about fairness and teamwork.

Introduce Opinion Writing Using Visual Rubrics

Don't forget to use these mentor texts to model, model, model. As you read the mentor texts above use them to create visual rubrics for your students to refer to during their own writing. There's a great visual rubric included in the Writing Bulletin Board.

Now You're Ready to Teach Opinion Writing!

Now that you've presented your students with some awesome and fun mentor texts to introduce opinion writing it's time to get them doing some writing of their own! How to Teach Opinion Writing in the Primary Classroom. Or, go here if you could use some opinion prompt ideas!

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14 Mentor Texts to Introduce Opinion Writing

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One of the best ways to introduce opinion writing is to model how beloved authors share their opinions through the use of mentor texts. Here are 14 read alouds that kids will love!

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About the Program - NWP College, Career, and Community Writers Program

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Overview of the College, Career, and Community Writers Program

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From Harvard

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Earth orbits the sun. Microorganisms cause infectious disease. Plants use carbon dioxide to grow. Most of us know these scientific truths from our earliest school days. They're accepted facts. But astronomers, microbiologists and botanists once fought for these concepts using arguments based on evidence. Science, it seems, arrives at its tenets through argument.

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Since my first blog on argument writing appeared here at Achieve the Core, our country has held a tumultuous election. That election has given many of us a lot of food for thought. It's a good time to be thinking about argument writing!

Why?

We at the Vermont Writing Collaborative understand that the purpose of teaching students to write sound arguments is really to teach them to think deeply about substantive knowledge; to come from a habit of mind which recognizes and appreciates both complexity and the very real possibility of error; to hold a perspective that is not one of "gotcha" but rather one which values solutions that genuinely solve problems.

Good argument thinking and writing - like elections, we hope - have everything to do with a thoughtful citizenry making thoughtful decisions which help to solve real problems.
What does effective argument planning and instruction look like?
There are many ways that effective argument planning can look. Let's look at the planning one middle school teacher, well-versed in the Writing for Understanding approach, did around the concept of wind energy and whether or not it's a good idea - clearly a topic that requires substantial knowledge building, and an important part of her school's curriculum.
The Big Idea and Focusing Question
First, the teacher needed to decide what Focusing Question for writing would guide students as they built their knowledge of the topic.

Here's what she decided:
An organization in your state, Creating Sustainable Energy, is looking into the advantages and disadvantages of various types of energy for meeting the future energy needs of the state. Ultimately, it needs to make a recommendation to the state legislature about which types of energy it makes most sense to invest in. One of those energy sources is wind. Wind power is an idea that is attractive to many people, and unattractive to others. Should our state invest money in wind energy research? Your job as the research committee is to look into the advantages and disadvantages, and to make the best recommendation you can to the CSE about whether or not to put money into wind energy research. Building Knowledge
Next, the teacher had to decide what students would need to know about wind energy before they wrote the essay that addressed the Focusing Question, and what texts and other resources would build this knowledge. This included:

What is wind energy and how does it work?

Where has it been used?

What are the advantages of wind energy? What are the disadvantages?

To build this knowledge, the teacher knew she would have to find texts from credible sources, both about the science of wind power (a degree of technical understanding) and about the advantages and disadvantages of wind power in terms of energy reliability, policy questions, aesthetic questions, and cost. Her goal would be to build deep understanding - not superficial talking points - of the issue of wind energy. Since the texts would be challenging, she also knew that she would need to guide students through the reading so that they were making meaning from the texts and building genuine domain knowledge of wind energy and the issues surrounding it (at a depth and level appropriate for middle school).

To synthesize their understanding, the teacher decided she would have her students write an informative essay (note: NOT argument yet!) on the advantages and disadvantages of wind energy. This, she thought, would help students synthesize what they knew about the pros and cons of wind energy without having to evaluate them.
Understanding Perspective
The next step, the teacher decided, would be to introduce students to a variety of perspectives on wind energy. In the real world, how people feel about various sides of a question - their personal, emotional perspective on the problem - has a lot to do with what they see as reasonable ways to solve a problem.

To help them think deeply about the different perspectives, students would write short narratives exploring each perspective. The first would be that of young boy whose family farm was saved by the rent paid by the wind turbine company. The second perspective would be that of a hardworking wildlife biologist who sees that the animal habitat is being harmed in the area of the wind turbines.

NOTE: Of course, it's not always possible to have students write these two "along-the-way" pieces before the actual argument writing, but having them do the thinking that these two pieces capture is important and helpful.
Considering the evidence, making a claim
By this stage, this teacher realized, her students would know a lot - about wind energy itself, and about people's personal and differing experience with wind energy. She needed to prepare them for the final task - making a claim and writing an argument.

First, she created a graphic organizer (below and attached for download) for synthesizing both sides of the question.

This organizer would help the teacher lead her students through a discussion: What are the best reasons for supporting wind energy? What are the best reasons for not supporting it?

Only after this critical thinking work would students weigh the evidence: Where, in their educated, value-informed view, did the weight of the evidence lie?

That would be their claim - arrived at only AFTER building their knowledge of the topic through their reading, and carefully considering the evidence on both sides.
Structure
This teacher knew that before students sat down to write, they would need a sense of structure: What does this kind of thinking look like in clear writing? How will I know how to build this essay?

In this particular class, the teacher knew that students had already done a lot of work with expository writing structures (including lots of experience with the Painted Essay™). However, she also knew that students had not done much work with "argument thinking," especially using a counterclaim effectively, accurately, and respectfully. She decided to write a model for her students to work with - not about wind energy (that was their task!), but about something similar, like whether or not to recommend geothermal energy development. This, she knew, would give her students a concrete understanding of both overall structure (which was familiar) and argument thinking (which was not).
Preparing for writing
Finally, it would be time for students to plan their own essays. Choosing the reasons and evidence they considered the strongest, they would develop the argument essay using the graphic organizer.

Keeping in mind that issues are rarely black and white, the teacher built in time for students to "talk their pieces" at the planning stage - before writing. She wanted to make sure that all her students had ample opportunities to construct their thinking, then rehearse it - aloud - before the final challenging task of actual thoughtful writing. She knew that considering the counterclaim was especially difficult, and so important - working with it would help students "capture the complexity" in a respectful, civil way that is a hallmark of good argument writing.
At last - writing!
The teacher decided to leave room for flexibility in this portion of the lesson to allow her to assess how she could best support her students. She could have students write the piece in chunks, stopping after each chunk to do some conferring, or she could have them write a full first draft. She knew that some of her students would need more support than others at this stage.

She decided to see how her students were managing as they undertook their study of wind energy; she would do some informal formative assessing as she went along, and decide on the best way to proceed with the writing based on that.
To sum up....
Planning for effective, thoughtful argument writing requires:

1. Planning with substance in mind (e.g., wind energy matters)

2. Planning with thoughtful, nuanced problem-solving in mind

3. Planning for knowledge-building

4. Planning for note-taking that fosters critical thinking

5. Planning for "talking ideas"

Challenging and time-consuming stuff - and well worth it!

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Planning for Argument Writing - Achieve the Core Aligned Materials

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So. Since my first blog on argument writing appeared here at Achieve the Core, our country has held a tumultuous election. That election has given many of us a lot of food for thought. It's a good time to be thinking about argument writing! Why?

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If you're reading this, you've already bitten the apple. You're actively searching for argumentative essay topics, so we're not going to waste any time trying to convince you as to why your students should be writing argumentative essays for your class. Instead, we're simply going to stoke the fire that's already burning.

Below, you'll find a list of fifty (+five) good argumentative essay topics that promise to engage your students, to offer rich bodies of relevant research, and to lend themselves to the nuances of argumentative writing. Once the groundwork for argumentative thinking and writing are in place, developing these argumentative essay topics often becomes the trickiest (if not most time consuming and brain-draining) part. Offer your students this list of argumentative essay topics to give them high quality choices and to inspire their writing!

PS: We'll send you this list of argumentative essay topics as a neatly formatted and editable Word Doc, and as a PDF. Simply request it at the bottom of this page!

Tech-Based Argumentative Essay Topics

1. Have human relationships grown stronger or weaker as a result of social media?

2. Have the advances made in technology over the course of the last ten to twenty years made human beings smarter?

3. What role should technology optimally serve in schools? Are laptops and cell phones helpful, or are they a hindrance to focus and learning?

4. Is social media best used in moderation? If so, what does moderation look like - and how easy/challenging is this to achieve?

5. Has the rise in the number of cameras and microphones present in any given room at any given moment (i.e. in everyone's smart phones) impacted the way people behave?

6. What role should robots play in our futures? Are there any particular roles or jobs that they should - or should not - replace?

7. Are video games a waste of time? / Are video games harmful to their users?

8. Has the ease with which digital materials are altered or falsified (i.e. fake user profiles, viral hoaxes, Photoshopped images) impacted the way that humans interact with the world?

9. How would society react if a major solar storm suddenly rendered all technology useless?

10. Should the manner in which a person behaves on social media (through images posted by themselves and others, through posts in which they are mentioned or that they authored themselves) be considered an accurate reflection of who they are in real life? Should it be considered in hiring and firing individuals from their jobs?

Education-Based Argumentative Essay Topics

1. Should computers be allowed to grade your essays on standardized tests and/or for the work you do in school?

2. How much writing should be done in classes outside of English class? In Science and Social Studies?

3. Would you learn as much in an online learning environment as you would in a physical classroom?

4. Should digital books, or ebooks, be used in the place of paper books?

5. Should classic literature, such as Shakespeare, be taught in English classes?

6. Should modern works of literature be integrated into the English curriculum? If so, at what cost? At the expense of which canonical works?

7. Does popular culture, such as lyrics from popular songs and scenes from popular movies, deserve to be studied in school? If so, in what capacity?

8. Should a two-month summer break still exist?

9. Are final exams important? Should they be part of the curriculum? What about midterms?

10. Is home-school as effective as attending a physical school?

11. Should students still be receiving quarterly marking period report cards? Why not five yearly reports? Why not trimesters or semesters?

12. Are grades important? Can we do without them?

13. What is the point of school?

14. Should summer reading be mandatory? Should it be tested in September?

15. Should courses be tracked into different levels, such as college prep and honors?

Looking for the best ways to teach argument? Check out our lesson plans here!

Entertainment-Based Argumentative Essay Topics

1. Should music streaming on services such as Spotify continue to be allowed, even if it means less money for musicians?

2. What makes a television series successful after many seasons?

3. Is television more or less popular than it was in the past?

4. What was the best (or most groundbreaking) movie released this year?

5. Has the ability to stream television "on demand" impacted human behavior in a negative way?

6. Why do trends, such as the most recent "zombie craze," exist in popular culture? What is it about zombies?

7. Should violent or graphic video games be more tightly regulated with regard to the age of their players?

8. Should video games be studied in an academic fashion, in a similar manner as art, film, or literature?

9. Why do people care so much about celebrities' lives?

10. Why is a musical artist who you don't believe should be famous, famous?

Sports-Based Argumentative Essay Topics

1. Do professional athletes deserve their high salaries?

2. Should professional athletes be fired from their sports teams for personal misconduct?

3. Considering what we've learned about the long term effects of concussions, should the way society views sports like football and boxing change?

4. What makes a sport "a sport"? Does chess count? Cheerleading? Video gaming?

5. Should steroids be acknowledged and allowed for all professional athletes to use?

Join our community to access all of our argument and pop culture-based lessons plans!

Politics-Based Argumentative Essay Topics

1. Should the rich pay a higher or a lower percentage of their income in taxes than the poor?

2. Under what circumstances is it acceptable to use military force?

3. Should the death penalty be abolished?

4. What restrictions should be placed, if any, on gun ownership? On carrying firearms?

5. Should illegal immigrants be given a free public education? Health care?

6. Who should and shouldn't be allowed to vote?

7. Should it be a requirement for the president to be a native born citizen? To be 35 years of age?

8. Is privacy more or less important than freedom or security?

9. Should the government be allowed to tap into phone or email conversations? To track Internet usage? To view any camera and listen to any microphone?

10. How worried should humans be about climate change? What should be done?

Five Bonus "Big Picture" Argumentative Essay Topics

1. Are children the products of their environments? Which is more important, nature or nurture?

2. When should a person be allowed to vote? To join the military? To purchase cigarettes, alcohol, or guns? To rent a car?

3. Does money make people happier?

4. What are the most important qualities for being a "good" person?

5. How important is pursuing a career that one is passionate about? Is passion more or less important than pay?

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Fifty Awesome Argumentative Essay Topics

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If you're reading this, you've already bitten the apple. You're actively searching for argumentative essay topics, so we're not going to waste any time trying to convince you as to why your students should be writing argumentative essays for your class. Instead, we're simply going to stoke the fire that's already burning.

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We have announced our Fourth Annual Student Editorial Contest, open to student entries from March 2 to April 4, 2017.

Here are the 10 winners, 20 runners-up and 24 honorable mentions, as well as a list of all 125 finalists, for our Third Annual Student Editorial Contest.
An Overview
Every day during the school year we invite teenagers to share their opinions about questions like these - on topics from cheerleading to police tactics - and hundreds do, posting arguments, reflections and anecdotes to our Student Opinion feature.

And for the third year in a row, we're inviting you to channel that enthusiasm into something a little more formal: short, evidence-based persuasive essays like the editorials The New York Times publishes every day.

The challenge is pretty straightforward. Choose a topic you care about, gather evidence from both New York Times and non-New York Times sources, and write a concise editorial (450 words or fewer) to convince readers of your point of view.

Because editorial writing at newspapers is a collaborative process, you can write your entry as a team effort, or by yourself. When you're done, post it in the contest form below by March 29, 2016, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.

With our judges, we will then use this rubric (PDF) to select winners to publish on The Learning Network.

As teachers know, the persuasive essay has long been a staple of high school education, but the Common Core standards seem to have put evidence-based argumentative writing on everybody's agenda. You couldn't ask for a more real-world example of the genre than the classic newspaper editorial - and The Times publishes, on average, four of them a day.

So what issue do you care about? Climate change? Sexism? Government surveillance? You decide. Then use the facts to convince us that you're right.
Contest Resources and Rules
To help with this challenge, Andrew Rosenthal, The Times's editorial page editor, made the video above, in which he details seven pointers. And we published two related lesson plans, " For the Sake of Argument: Writing Persuasively to Craft Short, Evidence-Based Editorials" and " I Don't Think So: Writing Effective Counterarguments " that offer additional teaching ideas.

We have also culled a list of our 100 most popular argumentative writing prompts, along with a longer collection of 301 prompts organized by category, to help inspire you - although, of course, you are not limited to those topics.

We encourage you to look at both our comments on last year's winners and the winning essays themselves. They can serve as excellent models, and they cover topics ranging from fighting in the N.H.L. to plastic surgery.
Rules
1. Use at least one Times source. You can write your editorial about any topic, as long as you use at least one source from The New York Times. That should pretty much open the whole world to you, as you may be surprised how much you can find in The Times.

Be advised that NYTimes.com has a digital subscription system in which readers have access to 10 free articles each month, but after that you will be asked to become a digital subscriber. However, all Times articles linked from The Learning Network, as well as The Learning Network itself, are free. That means you can use any of the articles we have linked to on this blog for the editorial contest without exceeding the 10-article limit. (The Times has also introduced a new K-12 subscription plan, which covers digital access schoolwide.)

2. Use at least one non-Times source. Make sure, however, that the source you use is a reliable one.

3. Always cite your sources. If you found evidence in an article on the Internet, link to it. If you used a print source, state the title and author, linking to additional information about it if possible. If you interviewed an expert, state his or her name and position. Readers (and judges) should always know where you got your evidence.

4. Be concise. The editorial must be no more than 450 words. Your title and list of sources are separate, however, and do not count as part of your 450-word limit.

5. Have an opinion. Editorials are different from news articles because they try to persuade readers to share your point of view. Don't be afraid to take a stand.

6. Write your editorial by yourself or with a group. If you are working as a team, just remember to submit all of your names when you post your entry. However, please submit only one editorial per student. If you're submitting as part of a team, you should not also submit as an individual.

7. Be original and use appropriate language. Write for a well-informed audience, but include enough background information to give context. Be careful not to plagiarize: Use quotation marks around lines you use verbatim from another source, or rephrase and cite your source.

8. Submissions must be from students who are 13 to 19 years old, although students can come from anywhere in the world. Unlike in previous years, students can now use their entire name if they want.

9. All entries must be submitted by March 29, 2016, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time using the contest form above. If you have questions about the contest, please feel free to post them in the comments section as well, and we'll answer you there.

10. Follow these instructions if you need proof that you entered this contest. Within an hour of submitting your editorial, you should receive an email from "The New York Times" with the subject heading "Thank you for your submission to our Student Editorial Contest." If you don't receive the email within an hour, even after checking your spam folder, then you can resubmit your entry. Be sure your settings allow emails from nytimes.com.

After two attempts and waiting over one full day, if you still have not received a confirmation email, you can email us at lnfeedback@nytimes.com using the email address you used in the contest form with the subject heading "Please send me an email confirmation for my editorial contest submission." Be sure to include your name and editorial title (or subject) in your email. You may have to wait up to one week for a reply.

11. We will use this rubric (PDF) to judge entries, and the winning editorials will be featured on The Learning Network.
Additional Resources Suggested by Teachers
Writing an Editorial Unit Plan by Lindsay Thompson

Reader Idea | He Said, She Said, I Say: A Researched Argument Essay by Danielle Harms

Reader Idea | Using an Op-Doc Video to Teach Argumentative Writing by Allison Marchetti

Reader Idea | Using Room for Debate to Teach Argumentative Writing and Discussion Skills by Gerard Dawson and Justin Rex

Good luck and have fun. We welcome your questions and comments in case we have somehow omitted details that might be useful. Let us know how we can help.

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Our Third Annual Student Editorial Contest: Write About an Issue That Matters to You

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We have announced our Fourth Annual Student Editorial Contest, open to student entries from March 2 to April 4, 2017. Here are the 10 winners, 20 runners-up and 24 honorable mentions, as well as a list of all 125 finalists, for our Third Annual Student Editorial Contest.

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In Australia citizens are fined $250 if they don't vote. Should we adopt that position?

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Kwame Anthony Appiah considers readers' ethical quandaries.

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Kate Clifford Larson is the author of "Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero."

We think we know Harriet Tubman: former slave, Underground Railroad conductor and abolitionist. But much of Tubman's real life story has been shrouded by generations of myths and fake lore, propagated through children's books, that has only obscured her great achievements. The truth about the woman who will become the new face of the $20 bill is far more compelling and remarkable.
1. Tubman was the Moses of her people.
This is a common sobriquet for Tubman, popularized by an early biography written by Sarah Bradford. The phrase is typically used to conjure the enormous scope of Tubman's efforts to lead fellow slaves to freedom. Bradford wrote that Tubman freed more than 300 people in 19 trips. That claim is repeated on plaques and monuments. But while Tubman is indeed a giant of American history, her Underground Railroad missions were more limited, though much more complicated and dangerous, than they are often made out to be.

Tubman told audiences repeatedly during the late 1850s that she rescued 50 to 60 people in eight or nine trips. Her first biographer, Franklin Sanborn, suggested that she, directly and indirectly, brought about 140 or 150 people North. My research has confirmed that estimate, establishing that she brought away about 70 people in about 13 trips and gave instructions to about 70 more who found their way to freedom on their own.

Contrary to some narratives, Tubman's missions did not extend throughout the South. She returned only to Maryland - specifically to plantations on the Eastern Shore - to bring away family members and friends whom she loved and trusted. It was too dangerous for her to go places where she did not know the people or the landscape.

Tubman didn't start the Underground Railroad, as Treasury Secretary Jack Lew claimed this past week. She tapped into a well-established network and helped expand it, making it stronger and more effective.
2. Tubman, at the time of her work with the Underground Railroad, was a grandmotherly figure.
Tubman is often portrayed in popular culture - in art, monuments, picture books and living-history presentations - as a decrepit old woman. This reflects photographs taken late in her life, which, as Washington Post critic Philip Kennicott noted this past week, "have the effect of softening the broader memory of who she was, and how she accomplished her heroic legacy."

In fact, Tubman was a relatively young woman during the 11 years she worked as an Underground Railroad conductor. She escaped slavery, alone, in the fall of 1849, when she was 27 years old. A runaway advertisement at the time, offering $100 for her capture, described her as "of a chestnut color, fine looking, and about 5 feet high."

She was also fierce. She carried a small pistol on her rescue missions, mostly for protection from slave-catchers, but also to discourage frightened runaways from turning back and risking the safety of the rest of the group. According to one story, she knocked out her own tooth with that pistol to stave off an infection that might have derailed a rescue mission. As a teenager, Tubman was nearly killed when an overseer hit her in the head with an iron weight, and she suffered from headaches and seizures for the rest of her life, but she didn't let those slow her down, either.

Viola Davis is set to play Tubman in an upcoming HBO movie based on my book, and, in Davis's portrayal, I think we will see the leader and warrior Tubman truly was.
3. She followed the quilt code to the North.
This myth is a staple of school curricula. Students are taught that slaves and free people stitched secret, coded directions into quilts and then hung them outside at night to help guide freedom seekers to the next safe house. While it is a pretty story, it has no basis in fact, and it tells us nothing about the real heroes and actual workings of the Underground Railroad.

Most of the quilt designs claimed by proponents of the quilt code were not even created until after the Civil War and slavery ended. Enslaved people would not have had access to the multiple varieties and colors of fabrics needed to construct such quilts, nor would they have placed precious bedding outside when it would have been badly needed inside their homes. We also know that Underground Railroad routes changed frequently because of the danger involved, so something as permanent as a quilt pattern would have been of limited use, anyway.

Rather than quilts, Tubman depended on her great intellect, courage and religious faith to escape slavery and then go back to rescue others. She followed rivers that snaked northward, and used the stars and other natural phenomena to guide her. She relied on sympathetic people, black and white, who hid her, told her which way to go and connected her with other people she could trust. She wore disguises. She paid bribes.

When leading her charges, she would alter the tempo of certain songs, "Go Down Moses" and "Bound for the Promised Land," or mimic the hoot of an owl, to signal whether it was safe or too dangerous to reveal their hiding places. She also used coded letters. In December 1854, for instance, she had a letter sent to Jacob Jackson, a literate, free black farmer and veterinarian, instructing him to tell her brothers that they needed to be ready to "step aboard" the "Ol' Ship of Zion." In other words, she was coming to rescue them.
4. Her work with the Underground Railroad was her most significant contribution.
While these activities made her famous, her service as a Union spy, scout and nurse during the Civil War, and her activism and philanthropy after the war, cemented her reputation as a remarkable American patriot.

In June 1863, Tubman became the first woman to lead an armed military raid when she guided Col. James Montgomery and his 2nd South Carolina black regiment up the Combahee River, routing Confederate outposts, liberating more than 700 slaves, and destroying stockpiles of cotton, food and weapons. It was of her service to the U.S. Army that she was most proud. She successfully petitioned to receive a veteran's pension, and at her funeral in 1913, she received semi-military honors.

Tubman also was an ardent suffragist and began appearing at suffrage conventions before the Civil War, becoming more active as the 19th century wore on. She fought for civil and political rights for not only women and minorities, but for the disabled and aged, too, and she established a nursing home for African Americans on her property in Auburn, N.Y.
5. Putting Tubman on the $20 bill is an insult, because she was anti-capitalist.
Feminista Jones laid out the case in The Washington Post last year: "By escaping slavery and helping many others do the same, Tubman became historic for essentially stealing 'property.' Her legacy is rooted in resisting the foundation of American capitalism. Tubman didn't respect America's economic system, so making her a symbol of it would be insulting." After Lew announced that Tubman would indeed be on the redesigned $20 bill, feminist writer Zoe Samudzi told The Post, "I'm mulling over the irony of a black woman who was bought and sold being 'commemorated' on the $20 bill."

While Tubman was adamantly against slavery, she wasn't against capitalism. She flipped slave-based capitalism on its head by "stealing" her own body and those of others from its unpaid, unfree grip. Tubman was an entrepreneur: During the Civil War, she created a laundry and restaurant near Hilton Head, S.C., where she taught recently liberated women to provide goods and services to the Union Army for pay; and later she ran several businesses from her home in Auburn, where she supported a house full of dependents.

The marginalization of women and people of color is not suddenly changed with redesigned currency. But Tubman on the $20 bill reinforces the message that the devaluation of women and minorities - economically, politically, socially, culturally and historically - is no longer acceptable.
Twitter: @KCliffLarson
Five myths is a weekly feature challenging everything you think you know. You can check out previous myths, read more from Outlook or follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter.

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Kate Clifford Larson is the author of "Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero." We think we know Harriet Tubman: former slave, Underground Railroad conductor and abolitionist. But much of Tubman's real life story has been shrouded by generations of myths and fake lore, propagated through children's books, that has only obscured her great achievements.

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In the past few weeks, anxious high school seniors across the country have received admissions decisions from colleges. Some might feel like they've won the lottery; others have dashed hopes and diminished confidence. Few in either category realize how little these outcomes matter in the long run; that, as Frank Bruni puts it, "where you go is not who you'll be. "

Regardless of where the cards fall, a growing number of educational experts and thought leaders have some counterintuitive advice: don't send your kids to college . . . at least not yet.

Our conveyor belt to college has striking costs. Nationally, one-third of college freshmen don't return for a second year. Kids take about six years to complete a degree, and only 9 percent of students from low-income backgrounds will have a degree by the time they turn 24. Beyond this, stress among college students is alarmingly high and rising each year with the majority of students feeling consistently anxious, overwhelmed or hopeless. These concerning trends are playing out from community college to the Ivy League.

The outlook for those who graduate is not what it once was: students are saddled by unprecedented levels of debt and few leave campus with the skills employers value most. One recent study showed that while 96 percent of college administrators think their graduates are ready for the work force, just 11 percent of employers agree.

The current system is failing our kids, country and economy. How will we fix it? We need to get back to basics and ask: "What do today's kids most need to learn, and how do we re-design the system around that?"

A growing number of colleges have begun to embrace a novel solution: change the outcomes of college by changing the inputs. What if college freshmen arrived on campus not burnt out from having been "excellent sheep" in high school, but instead refreshed, focused and prepared to take full advantage of the rich resources and opportunities colleges have to offer?

The "gap year," a common practice across Europe and Australia, has yet to take root in the United States. A primary barrier is the stigma we associate with the term - it conveys privilege and frivolity and is often viewed either as a luxury for a select few, or remediation for kids who didn't get into the college of their choice.

And yet, the research shows undeniable, positive impacts in terms of increased maturity, confidence and achievement. A recent Middlebury study showed that students who take a year off before arriving outperform their peers in their academic and extracurricular engagement on campus. And the American Gap Association reports that students who take a year before college are 75 percent more likely to be "happy" or "extremely satisfied" with their careers post-college.

Given its known benefits, it's time to rebrand the "gap year" as anything but a "gap." When used intentionally, the year before college can be a bridge, a launch pad and a new rite of passage. It's the students who find the courage to step off the treadmill - replacing textbooks with experience and achievement with exploration - who are best prepared for life after high school. And a growing number of colleges are taking notice.

Bill Fitzsimmons, Harvard's undergraduate admissions dean, wrote a manifesto about the need for students to take time off before college. Rick Shaw, Stanford's undergraduate admissions dean, now speaks about the value of non-linear paths and the learning and growth that come from risk taking and failure, as opposed to perfect records. Princeton, Tufts and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have recently developed "bridge year" programs that encourage - and pay for - students to spend a year immersed in the world before arriving on campus.

Growing evidence also shows that a structured "bridge year" can be a game-changer for low-income students by helping them develop the growth mindset and grit associated with college persistence and completion. Reflecting this, scholarships for students who have historically not had these opportunities are growing as well. For example, at Global Citizen Year, the organization I founded and lead, our goal is to find the highest potential students we can, regardless of their family's ability to pay. Since 2010 we have disbursed over $6 million in financial aid with 80 percent of each year's class receiving need-based financial aid.

Admissions criteria are changing to give preference to students with real world experience. In January, Harvard and more than 80 other colleges released Turning the Tide, a blueprint for de-escalating the admissions arms race by focusing less on personal achievement and more on values, integrity and commitment to others. One proposed pathway is to give an admissions boost to students who take a service year before arrival.

As it becomes increasingly evident that our educational system is failing so many, it's time to demand a stronger foundation for kids from all backgrounds.

Whether celebration or disappointment characterize admissions season for your family, one thing is clear: regardless of which school your child chooses, you would be wise not to send your kid to college . . . at least not yet.
Abigail Falik (@abbyfalik)

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Don't Send Your Kids to College. At Least Not Yet.

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In the past few weeks, anxious high school seniors across the country have received admissions decisions from colleges. Some might feel like they've won the lottery; others have dashed hopes and diminished confidence. Few in either category realize how little these outcomes matter in the long run; that, as Frank Bruni puts it, "where you go is not who you'll be.

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During our visit last December to a rural hospital in southeastern Madagascar, a 14-year-old girl was rushed in, hemorrhaging after two days of unsuccessful labor. The only surgeon there - a Chinese doctor on temporary assignment - performed an emergency caesarean section, but two days had proved too long for the baby. She was stillborn, strangled by her own umbilical cord. The mom fared better, but just barely. No blood was available to replace the half-gallon she lost on her way to the surgical center.

Eight million people are killed or injured every year because they cannot access safe surgery, but discussions of global health often don't extend beyond images of Ebola treatment centers staffed with hazmat-clad workers and warnings about Zika virus transmission. The global burden of surgical diseases outstrips that of HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis and surgery remains, in the words of Paul Farmer and Jim Kim, the "neglected stepchild of global health."

Yet 5 billion people around the world cannot access safe, affordable and timely surgery. Our patient in Madagascar, for example, was carried on the backs of her relatives for two days before she could reach the main road to get to the surgical center. Our data show that about 71 percent of Madagascar's 24 million people face the same predicament.

At the hospital where our patient ultimately went, there were no trained Malagasy surgeons. Although Madagascar actually boasts one of the highest doctor-to-patient ratios in Africa, almost three-quarters of these physicians work in urban centers, where only 35 percent of the population lives. And most of them aren't surgeons: not even one percent of the fully trained physician workforce in Madagascar are surgeons, anesthesiologists, or obstetricians. There are nearly 40 times more surgical specialists per person in the United States than there are in Madagascar.

Adding insult to injury is the cost of surgical care. The patient we saw lived on less than a dollar a day, but in Madagascar, a caesarean section can cost upwards of $450. This forces families to sacrifice their financial livelihoods for a shot at healthcare, like hers did. And our patient was not alone: each year 81 million patients around the world are driven into financial ruin as a result of getting surgery. According to our estimates, in Madagascar, a patient seeking surgery has more than a 90 percent chance of undergoing financial catastrophe to get it.

The eight million people who die annually because they can't access surgery are casualties of systemic failure. Surgery has remained the neglected stepchild of global health because fixing systemic failures is daunting.

Solutions, however, do exist. It's simply impossible to address health needs around the world without providing surgical services, and doing so can be just as cost-effective as other global health interventions. Last year, The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery released a template for Ministries of Health to use in drafting National Surgical Plans, with the goal of incorporating surgery into a country's national health framework. In Madagascar this past fall, a joint effort was launched between the Ministry of Health, Harvard Medical School's Program in Global Surgery and Social Change and Mercy Ships' Department of Medical Capacity Building, to strengthen the country's surgical system. At a conference in Dubai last month, the Malagasy Minister of Health announced he would host a national meeting of stakeholders to begin prioritizing surgical care for the nine million Malagasy who desperately need it.

The Malagasy Ministry of Health has also been increasing the number of urban surgeons practicing in rural centers over the past year by offering them hospital directorships and updated equipment as incentives. In another effort to bolster surgical workforce numbers, Malagasy general physicians receive two years of specialized training in district hospitals to perform caesareans and emergency surgeries. In other countries, nurse-midwives can be trained to perform C-sections where permissible under national law, and monitoring can reduce the huge problems of physician absenteeism and the sale of hospital medicines and supplies on the black market.

Fixing surgical systems isn't just limited to low- and middle-income countries. With $12.3 trillion in global GDP losses at stake from weak surgical systems, this is a global problem. Just this week, BMJ Global Health published a roadmap for high-income country stakeholders to join in bringing surgery to the five billion people who lack it.

Surgical conditions comprise 30 percent of the world's total burden of disease, with conditions ranging from obstructed labor and obstetric fistulas, to tumor resections and fracture repairs. Such a broad distribution means that if the world wants to meet the health goals it has set for itself, surgery can no longer be the stepchild. We need to start a new conversation, with surgery at the center.
Emily Bruno is a medical student at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and currently serving as a global surgery research associate with Harvard Medical School, focusing on surgical system strengthening in Madagascar. Mark G. Shrime is the research director for the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change at Harvard Medical School and an instructor of otolaryngology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

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Surgery: The Neglected Stepchild of Global Health

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During our visit last December to a rural hospital in southeastern Madagascar, a 14-year-old girl was rushed in, hemorrhaging after two days of unsuccessful labor. The only surgeon there - a Chinese doctor on temporary assignment - performed an emergency caesarean section, but two days had proved too long for the baby.

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In 2009 the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a fabulous TED talk called " The Danger of a Single Story." It was about what happens when complex human beings and situations are reduced to a single narrative: when Africans, for example, are treated solely as pitiable poor, starving victims with flies on their faces.

Her point was that each individual life contains a heterogeneous compilation of stories. If you reduce people to one, you're taking away their humanity.

American politics has always been prone to single storyism - candidates reducing complex issues to simple fables. This year the problem is acute because Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are the giants of Single Storyism. They reduce pretty much all issues to the same single story: the alien invader story.

Every problem can be solved by finding some corrupt or oppressive group to blame. If America is beset by wage stagnation it's not because of intricate structural problems. It's because of the criminal Mexicans sneaking across the border or it's because of this evil entity called "the banks."

Worse, the stories have become identity markers. This is a phenomenon borrowed from campus political correctness. In order to express your solidarity with the virtuous team, you have to embrace the socially approved story. If you differ from the official story - the way Bill Clinton differed from the official progressive crime story a few weeks ago - it is not so much a sign that you are wrong (truth is not the issue). It is a sign that you have false allegiances. You must embrace the approved story to show you are not complicit in a system of oppression.

Hillary Clinton is not naturally a single story person. But while she is controlling the delegate race this campaign, Sanders is controlling the conversation and she is gradually coming around to his version of everything. For example, last week she came closer to embracing a nationwide $ 15 minimum wage, though still with caveats.

One true minimum wage story is that corporations are reaping record profits while pushing down wages of the unskilled. But another true story, embodied in the vast trove of research, is that if you raise the minimum wage too high, you end up punishing less skilled workers. One study found the modest hike in the national minimum wage between 2006 and 2009 reduced employment among young people without a high school degree by almost 6 percent.

The key is to find a balance between those stories. Raising the minimum wage to $15 may make sense in rich areas, but in most of the country there will be horrendous consequences for less skilled workers trying to find jobs.

In the realm of criminal justice, one true story is that America's criminal justice system was constructed within a system of slavery and racism. It enables police brutality, often of a racist sort. It has led to massive over-incarceration, which has devastated individuals, families and neighborhoods.

Yet there are other opposing stories, also true:

Incarceration reduces crime. Experts disagree wildly on how much, but most studies show a significant effect. That's partly because most of the people who do serious crime are career criminals. Among inmates released from state prison in 2005, the average number of previous convictions was five and the average number of previous arrests was greater than 10.

Less aggressive policing means more crime. After the release of the horrific Laquan McDonald video - which showed a Chicago cop killing him in cold blood - there was a 69 percent drop in the nonfatal shooting arrest rate and a 48 percent drop in the homicide arrest rate. In the meantime, according to an analysis by Rob Arthur and Jeff Asher of FiveThirtyEight, nonfatal shootings rose by 73 percent and homicides rose by 48 percent.

While the overall system is steeped in structural racial inequality, parts of the system don't seem that biased. As the criminologist Barry Latzer notes in his book "The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America," there is not a wide disparity between whites and blacks in time served for various offenses.

Moderate, bipartisan efforts are reducing inequality. Decades ago, evangelicals like Chuck Colson joined with a swath of progressives to reduce incarceration rates. These efforts are having an effect. Total U.S. imprisonment has declined for the past seven years. The imprisonment rate among black women has dropped by 47 percent since 2000, while the rate of imprisonment among white women has risen by 56 percent. Male imprisonment trends are similar though less striking.

As in life generally, every policy has the vices of its virtues. Aggressive policing cuts crime but increases brutality. There is no escape from trade-offs and tragic situations. The only way forward is to elect people who are capable of holding opposing stories in their heads at the same time, and to reject those who can't.

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In 2009 the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a fabulous TED talk called " The Danger of a Single Story." It was about what happens when complex human beings and situations are reduced to a single narrative: when Africans, for example, are treated solely as pitiable poor, starving victims with flies on their faces.

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The Treasury Department picked an interesting moment to announce a revision in its plans to change the faces on America's money. Plans to boot Alexander Hamilton off the $10 bill in favor of a woman have been shelved. Instead, Harriet Tubman - one of the most heroic figures in the history of our nation, or any nation - will move onto the face of the $20 bill.

She will replace Andrew Jackson, a populist who campaigned against elites but was also, unfortunately, very much a racist, arguably an advocate of what we would nowadays call white supremacy. Hmm. Does that make you think about any currently prominent political figures?

But let me leave the $20 bill alone and talk about how glad I am to see Hamilton retain his well-deserved honor. And I'm not alone among economists in my admiration for our first Treasury secretary. In fact, Stephen S. Cohen and J. Bradford DeLong have an excellent new book, " Concrete Economics," arguing that Hamilton was the true father of the American economy.

Full disclosure: I know next to nothing about Hamilton the man and his life story. Nor, I'm sorry to say, have I managed to see the musical. But I have read Hamilton's pathbreaking economic policy manifestoes, in particular his 1790 " First Report on the Public Credit," a document that remains amazingly relevant today.

In that report, Hamilton proposed that the federal government assume and honor all of the debts individual states had run up during the Revolutionary War, imposing new tariffs on imported goods to raise the needed revenue. He believed that doing so would produce important benefits, which I'll get to in a minute.

First, however, I think it's interesting to ask how such a proposal would be received today.

On the left, it would surely be denounced as a bailout - a giveaway to speculators who had purchased devalued debt for pennies on the dollar, and would reap large capital gains. Indeed, a fair bit of the report is devoted to explaining why trying to prevent such windfall gains, via "discrimination between the different classes of creditors," would be impractical and unwise.

Meanwhile, on the right - well, Hamilton was calling for a tax increase, which modern conservatives oppose under any and all circumstances. Luckily for him, there was no Club for Growth to demand his impeachment.

But why did Hamilton want to take on those state debts? Partly to establish a national reputation as a reliable borrower, so that funds could be raised cheaply in the future. Partly, also, to give wealthy, influential investors a stake in the new federal government, thereby creating a powerful pro-federal constituency.

Beyond that, however, Hamilton argued that the existence of a significant, indeed fairly large national debt would be good for business. Why? Because "in countries in which the national debt is properly funded, and an object of established confidence, it answers most of the purposes of money." That is, bonds issued by the U.S. government would provide a safe, easily traded asset that the private sector could use as a store of value, as collateral for deals, and in general as a lubricant for business activity. As a result, the debt would become a "national blessing," making the economy more productive.

This argument anticipates, to a remarkable degree, one of the hottest ideas in modern macroeconomics: the notion that we are suffering from a global " safe asset shortage." The private sector, according to this argument, can't function well without a sufficient pool of assets whose value isn't in question - and for a variety of reasons, there just aren't enough such assets these days.

As a result, investors have been bidding up the prices of government debt, leading to incredibly low interest rates. But it would be better for almost everyone, the story goes, if governments were to issue more debt, investing the proceeds in much-needed infrastructure even while providing the private sector with the collateral it needs to function. And it's a very persuasive story to just about everyone who has looked hard at the evidence.

Unfortunately, policy makers won't do the right thing, largely because they keep listening to fiscal scolds - people who insist that public debt is a terrible thing even when borrowing costs almost nothing. The influence of these scolds, their virtual veto over fiscal policy, somehow persists even though their predictions of soaring interest rates and runaway inflation keep not coming true.

The point is that Alexander Hamilton knew better.

Unfortunately, Hamilton isn't around to help counter foolish debt phobia. But maybe reminding policy makers of his wisdom is one way to chip away at the wall of folly that still constrains policy. And having his face out there every time someone pulls out a ten can't hurt, either.

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The Treasury Department picked an interesting moment to announce a revision in its plans to change the faces on America's money. Plans to boot Alexander Hamilton off the $10 bill in favor of a woman have been shelved.

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Op-Ed Contributor

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Rescue workers search for survivors in Portoviejo, Ecuador. Credit Credit Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

Quito, Ecuador - The earthquake that shook Ecuador last Saturday has proved to be the most destructive in nearly seven decades and has caused the worst humanitarian catastrophe here in memory. Official figures record more than 577 dead, but according to the hundreds of volunteers in the disaster zone, there are many more fatalities not yet accounted for. Entire villages have been destroyed, and the photographs circulating on social media resemble scenes from the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

The earthquake is historic not only for the magnitude of the destruction and human suffering, but also for giving rise to the most impressive mobilization of civil society in Ecuador I can remember. The country has become one huge relief center, and in almost every neighborhood, in towns large and small, there are collection points for donations of clothing, food and blankets.

So many people have joined the aid effort that in some places, they have been asked to stop sending volunteers. Social media has become a citizens' channel for messaging about offers of help or calls for relief: everything from medicine and mattresses to drinking water and toys for children, and even powdered lime to cover the hastily buried corpses of loved ones.

What is striking about this huge humanitarian operation is that it has pushed the state into a secondary role. This may be normal in other countries, but in Ecuador this is an immensely significant development.

During President Rafael Correa's nine years in office, the state has become the arbiter of almost every aspect of life here. Mr. Correa, an American-educated economist, is a declared enemy of any civil society organization that doesn't adhere to his government's vision of centralized, top-down power. He never misses an opportunity to criticize nongovernmental organizations that are not aligned with his politics, and has even closed down those that incur his displeasure.

Many people now want to be sure that the stuff they're donating will not end up in the hands of state agencies. One leading member of the chamber of commerce in Quito, the capital, announced Wednesday that the group was considering creating a fund for reconstruction that would be managed exclusively by the private sector. Such is the distrust of the government that even an opposition mayor, Jaime Nebot, from the city of Guayaquil, had to appeal to people to hand over their contributions to the specialized state agencies.

Last Friday, the day before the earthquake, at a conference at the Vatican, Mr. Correa called civil society a threat to democracy. What Mr. Correa never imagined is that the civil society he had described as so menacing would, just days later, organize the largest humanitarian operation in the country's history.

The first signs of this popular movement became apparent within hours of the quake in a public outcry over the lack of information, and even misinformation, from the government. The government agency in charge of disaster relief posted a message on Twitter that warned, wrongly, of a tsunami risk. Minutes later, the tweet was taken down, but the confusion caused widespread panic.

The earthquake revealed that the vast and expensive official media apparatus worked perfectly when it came to producing government propaganda, but was next to useless at providing vital information for people in a crisis.

This disaster has hit the country at a moment of economic vulnerability. With the price of oil - a key commodity supporting state revenues - so low, the government has been forced to borrow heavily, in particular from China, simply to pay state providers and salaries.

The prospects are not good. The International Monetary Fund recently predicted that Ecuador's economy would shrink 4.5 percent in 2016; by most measures, in all of South America, only Venezuela has a worse outlook.

According to President Correa, the costs imposed by the earthquake could be as much as $3 billion, which represents about 3 percent of gross domestic product. This is probably an underestimate. A former finance minister, Mauricio Pozo, put the cost of the damage at no less than 5 percent of G.D.P.

This news is particularly awkward for Mr. Correa, who still has more than a year in office. The government finances were already in a mess, but now the president could be forced to seek assistance from organizations like the I.M.F. that he despises for ideological reasons.

But that's not the only problem. The people who have been out working in the rubble-filled streets since the earthquake have not forgotten that Mr. Correa has always criticized the idea of creating savings funds financed by surpluses from oil revenues. He even liquidated those set up by the previous government, saying that they merely benefited the international banking system and that it was better to spend the money on projects. Now, with the country on the brink of bankruptcy, people are asking why Ecuador doesn't have a savings fund like the one Chile had built up with revenues from its copper industry, a fund that helped to provide the more than $25 billion needed to cover the costs of reconstruction after a major earthquake in 2010.

The earthquake was not the only natural phenomenon threatening Ecuador's future. The Cotopaxi volcano near Quito is active right now; a major eruption could cause a disaster far worse than this quake.

Is the country ready to cope with such an event? Mr. Correa says it is. But it's clear that it's not. For now, what we see is that civil society is doing the work that the government was not prepared for.

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Opinion | In Ecuador, Political Aftershocks

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Op-Ed Contributor Quito, Ecuador - The earthquake that shook Ecuador last Saturday has proved to be the most destructive in nearly seven decades and has caused the worst humanitarian catastrophe here in memory. Official figures record more than 577 dead, but according to the hundreds of volunteers in the disaster zone, there are many more fatalities not yet accounted for.