ANDREA SEABROOK, host:
Last week, we asked listeners to tell us stories about their own elections. This one came in from our backyard.
Ms. TONI WARD(ph): Hi, I'm Toni Ward. I lived in Kensington, Maryland. And my first election came about as a result of the Second World War starting.
SEABROOK: It was 1941 and Toni Ward was in the first grade, 6 years old. Her father had struggled through the Depression but finally found a steady job. The family had just moved to Maryland that November.
Ms. WARD: I have a vivid memory of December 7th because my brother and I were sitting on the stairs and suddenly there was crying. The radio was going and everybody gathered around the radio and we understood that a war had started.
SEABROOK: The next day at school, there was a lot of talk about what that meant. And then, Toni Word was elected by her peers and her first grade teacher to hold office.
Ms. WARD: My first election was as chair of the war bond drive at Glenmont Elementary School in Wheaton, Maryland.
SEABROOK: She remembers carefully collecting the pennies that most children brought in. The coins purchase stamps and the stamps accumulated until the children had enough to trade in for a war bond.
Ms. WARD: Oh, I felt so responsible. And I think I probably made lists of names and how much money and went over and over just like I was a bookkeeper. It was really a big thing in my life. I think I thought about it a lot when I wasn't at school.
SEABROOK: Toni Ward now works in a school. She teaches special education -still in Maryland. But back then, shortly after heading up the war bond drive, her family had to move again. She was thrust into a new school and a new state. But she brought with her a sense of confidence from that first experience holding office.
For next week's Homework assignment, I want you to tell me about the character you find most memorable. It can be someone from a novel you've read or a favorite film. Tell me all about it and why. Write us. The address is homework@npr.org. Or you can call the Homework hotline: 202-408-5183.
You'll never know when we're going to play your message from the Homework hotline. And we could not resist playing you one more submission from our election assignment. It's the campaign jingle from listener Martha Carats(ph) of Indianapolis, Indiana. In a bid to be class secretary, here's how she once courted the vote of her fellow seventh graders.
Ms. MARTHA CARATS: (Singing) I'm going to sit right down and write you all a letter and ask you all to vote for me. I'm going to write words oh, so sweet, so efficient and so neat. All the eyes, I'll get them. On the line, I'll sign them. I'm going to sit right down and write you all a letter. So all you folks can plainly see that I am the one who writes the better letter and I should be your secretary.
I lost the election.
SEABROOK: Thank you, Martha Carats for bravely leaving this message on our Homework hotline.