We received more than 1,000 letters from high school students on a wide range of topics in response to our Student Challenge. The most popular subjects included Donald Trump, teenage anxiety, N.F.L. kneeling, birth control, Columbus Day, Harvey Weinstein, Puerto Rico and the Boy Scouts. Here are 20 letters that we particularly liked.

The President’s Behavior

As editor in chief of my school newspaper, The Wilson Beacon, I have come to understand that a fundamental aspect of journalism is not only to report the news, but also to shine a light on those in power. Our newspaper has embraced this value as we cover the student government and the school administration. As I read “Presidential Etiquette Guide, Part II” (editorial, Oct. 9), I could only imagine how our community would react if the current president’s behavior were reflected in our student body. Imagine the student body president referring to one of his or her fellow students who play football as a “son of a bitch.” Imagine if he demeaned a student who was a member of a Gold Star family. Imagine if she encouraged violence at a pep rally. I would hope that we would hold our president to the same standard that we would high school students. Clearly, so far we don’t.

BENJAMIN KORN, 17

12th Grade, Woodrow Wilson High School, Washington

Letting Teenagers ‘Have a Life’

Re “The Kids Who Can’t,” by Benoit Denizet-Lewis (Sunday Magazine, Oct. 15), about the spike in teenage anxiety:

The boy in the blue shirt, Jake, the cross-country runner, who thinks about Model United Nations conferences and the University of North Carolina, also thinks about failure, Prozac and drowning. If high school is about educating students for a future life, then why is it causing such anxiety that there is an increasing number of hospital admissions for teenage suicide attempts? Why do we have to think about our adult life every day as a teenager? I’m a junior in high school, and sometimes I forget that I’m supposed to have a life as a teenager. I can’t sleep at night; all I do is stay up thinking and planning. Why are more American teenagers than ever suffering from severe anxiety? It’s because we get it into our heads that school is what’s going to make things better; we live for the future instead of actually just living.

NATALIE JEW, 16

11th Grade, Brookline High School, Brookline, Mass.

Books That Make You Uncomfortable

We live in a tense and fraught time. Racial tensions are rising with police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement. Alternative right groups are spreading, and so are neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. Our president prefers angry tweets to press conferences. Among this turmoil, seeing the article “Biloxi, Where Late the ‘Mockingbird’ Sang” (Arts, Briefly, Oct. 18) is no surprise. A Mississippi school district removed the book after parents complained of feeling uncomfortable. But the point of “To Kill a Mockingbird” is to make the reader uncomfortable. Reading it should make people uncomfortable, because it tells of a time not too long ago when someone with the wrong skin color could be killed for a glance or a whistle. The purpose of this book isn’t to soothe readers. Books are here to remind you of injustices and to push you to action. Don’t hide away from unpleasantness; act on it.