When a Montgomery County High School freshman took on a social studies project, she had no idea it would lead to communication with a nationally published cartoonist.
Rayleigh Lillie is a ninth grade student in Chris Spoonamore’s Social Studies Survey class. The class recently completed a project over the Legislative Branch of government.
Students were able to choose from a list of topics dealing with the Legislative Branch, Spoonamore said, such as gerrymandering, lobbying and congressional benefits.
Rayleigh opted to showcase benefits members of Congress receive through a political cartoon.
“There were different options,” Rayleigh told the Advocate. I’ve always been into art and I thought that would be the easiest option I could have done.”
Spoonamore has been teaching for 26 years and says it’s one of the most insightful political cartoons he’s seen. That prompted him to reach out to Blake Hannon.
Hannon writes for multiple organizations. He is a publications writer for the Office of Communications and Marketing at Morehead State University and a contributing writer for the Lexington Herald Leader.
Hannon then sent a message to Joel Pett. Pett is a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist and was a Herald Leader cartoonist for nearly 40 years.
His work has also been featured in other major national publications such as USA Today, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
“I watched her create it in stages in class, and I wanted to make sure people saw the wit and talent of this young lady,” Spoonamore said.
Spoonamore said he wanted a professional opinion on Rayleigh’s piece and was quite excited when he heard back from Pett.
“Mr. Pett’s analysis of the cartoon was in-depth and constructive. In an email that he sent to Rayleigh via Mr. Spoonamore, he offered some wonderful insights. His first few comments were very encouraging, saying ‘Our country needs MUCH more of that!’ and ‘Your very detailed knowledge of the perks of Congress is impressive!’”
One of the best compliments Pett offered, Spoonamore said, was “That it is easier to teach a thinking person how to draw than teach a drawing person to think.”
He also offered some advice for how Rayleigh’s cartoon could be strengthened.
Among those suggestions were, Spoonamore said, “Less is more, injecting some humor/ridicule and thinking about the sizing and clarity of text were all suggestions to increase the quality of the piece.”
Pett even made two versions of the same content illustrating what he might have done given the same topic.
Rayleigh told the Advocate she likely won’t have a desire to pursue a career in political cartooning or anything political in nature but likely may consider an arts-related field or possibly criminology.
She told the Advocate she was thrilled to learn her work had been reviewed by Pett.
“That’s just so cool ... I was really just like ‘wow!”
Pett had not returned a message seeking comment by press time.
Spoonamore said the school system is “so proud of Rayleigh for taking the chance and showing off her skills.”
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