Writing Letters and Envelopes – Another Lost Art

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Lynn

The past two weeks I have been teaching lessons on how to address an envelope and the proper formatting of a business letter.  A task I letter and envelopethought might be covered in two lessons has taken two weeks.  Why?  Because my students have never addressed envelopes nor have they ever written a letter.  Shocked?  I was.

Just like my post the other day of cursive writing becoming a lost art due to technology (texting, computers etc.) letter writing is, in my opinion, going the way of the dinosaurs as well.

In my first lesson, I posed the question, “When was the last time you wrote a letter?”  My students seemed confused.  “Like to your grandma?…” I added.

“I texted her last night,” said one student.

“I Skyped her two weeks ago,” said another.

“No, that’s not what I mean.”  I chose my words carefully.  “When did you pick up a pen and a piece of paper and write a letter to someone?”

“You mean use “Snail Mail”?”  A light bulb seemed to blink on but then blink immediately off.

It was obvious not one student had written a letter over the past six months and as I probed further, most had NEVER written a formal letter, let alone an informal one to their grandmas.  As one student was quick to point out, what was the point of writing letters that would take a week or more to get somewhere when technology would allow them to immediately connect through social media or Facetime, Skype, text or email?  I couldn’t argue with their logic.

Here in Canada, our postal service is losing billions of dollars because Canadians are not using the service anymore.  The cost of a stamp has increased dramatically over the years, so even those who used to send the obligatory yearly Christmas Card to friends, now uses free e-cards, or sends a generic letter to all their email contacts or just posts a funny graphic on their Facebook page and then posts a new status to read: “Merry Christmas, All!”

I will admit, I don’t even know what a stamp costs.  I only sent a limited number of Christmas Cards through Canada Post this year and since I pay all bills online (and correspond almost exclusively online), I too, have abandoned the Canadian postal service.  Sorry guys!

It had me wondering why the Alberta Educational Curriculum insists that grade nine students be expected to write a formal business letter AND address an envelope correctly for their provincial exam?  Is it a big waste of time to teach it and will the students ever use the information afterwards?

Of course I can answer my own questions…

It is IMPERATIVE students know how to write letters AND address envelopes, and here’s why I think that.

Technology has not connected us as much as actually separated us.  There is no such thing as the “personal touch” anymore.  We hide behind our computer, phone and tablet screens and use texting language that has destroyed our ability to spell and use grammar correctly.  We are limited to 140 characters to express ourselves with this technology.  We never write cursively anymore, mostly everything is in printed font.  My students do not even know how to sign cursively their own names.  It’s sad.

When I pointed out to my students that one day they will have to apply for jobs, and a good cover letter is essential, as is a well written resume, that did seem to leave an impression.  Taking time to send a card or a personalized note hand-written to someone, shows to that person (at least of my generation), that they are worthy of the effort and it is a personal connection, not just a two-second text.  It is a special treat AND I save all cards and letters that have been written to me from my students.  (A big box in my closet gives testimony to my letter/card hoarding.)

Recently, a group of students from my school had to raise support money for a mission trip to Guatemala and one young man decided, along with the form letter from the school, to write a personal letter to each of his prospective contacts.  Of the forty students, he raised all his support plus $500.00 more!  His mom thinks it was because of the “personal letters” he sent.

So, I would like to know what my readers think: is letter-writing a lost art or is it a good skill to know and foster?  (If you need an example of a great letter-writer, look to Apostle Paul…just sayin’ 🙂

 

 

 

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St. Patrick’s Day – Yay or Nay?

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Lynn

St_-Patricks-Day-Festival-Seoul-Korea-2012I will try avoid getting pinched again today, remembering to wear green to commemorate St. Patrick’s Day.  I’m not Irish, nor do I particularly like the colour green as an adornment but teaching in a Junior High School, it’s almost mandatory to “celebrate” this day by wearing obligatory green and accentuating my attire with a shamrock brooch.  It goes without saying, I won’t be attending any festive parades, nor will I indulge in drinking green beer.

People all over the world celebrate the 17th of March to honour St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.  Born in Britain during the 4th century, St. Patrick, was kidnapped when he was a teenager and enslaved by Irish raiders.  He was able to escape after six years and became a priest in Britain but later chose to return to Ireland as a missionary.  According to Irish folklore, he used a shamrock to explain the Christian concept of the Trinity to the Irish.  In spite of continuous opposition from pagan leaders, he continued to evangelize for thirty years while baptizing the newly converted and establishing monasteries, churches and schools.  He died on March 17th, and it is his “death day” we celebrate each year.

There is much debate amongst Evangelical Christians whether or not this day should even be acknowledged because it is predominantly a Catholic religious observance that has evolved into a day of celebrating Irish folklore, culture and national identity.  For those who are not Irish or have any religious affiliation, the day becomes basically a good excuse for a drinking party.

Here’s my opinion, take it or leave it.  Just like Christians observing Halloween, and St. Valentine’s Day and having no trouble with Santa Claus and including a few bunnies at Easter, St. Patrick’s Day falls under a “holiday” category where individuals and families must decide whether or not they want to participate in commemorating a predominantly secular event.  Wearing hearts for Valentine’s Day, or wearing bunny ears for Easter will likely not affect your Christian witness, neither will dressing in green and wearing a shamrock on St. Patrick’s Day.  If you want to evangelize, you might like to point out to those who do not know the symbolism of the shamrock to explain how the Trinity might be represented and you might have a conversation that shows how the shamrock is shaped like the Cross.  Of course that may be stretching the Christian symbolism too far.  My thought is to just enjoy the day like you might have enjoyed “Pi Day” on March 14th by having a piece of pie.  Wear a shamrock on St. Patrick’s Day but stay away from the green beer.  🙂

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A Lost Art

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Lynn

For the past couple of years I have been teaching at a Christian school.  I can honestly say it is a rewarding and challenging experience and I have been accumulating a storehouse of stories about my times in the front of a classroom.

For instance, in my capacity as the Junior High Language Arts teacher, I have had the pleasure (or pain) of teaching spelling, punctuation and grammar to grade eight and grade nine students.  Most recently I have been trying to prepare my grade nine students for their Language Arts PAT’s (Provincial Exams).

At the start of the year, I was curious how far “back to basics” I needed to go when I asked the question, “Who can tell me what a consonant is?”

One boy raised his hand, “Is that like Africa or Australia?”

I looked increduously at him,”That’s a continent not a consonant!”

Back to basics it is!

One day as I was writing out a few notes for my class on the white board one boy piped up loudly, “Mrs. Dove, I can’t read that!”

I thought that interesting since he was sitting near the front of the class and I was being as neat as possible with my cursive writing.  I looked puzzled and then he explained himself.  “I can’t read handwriting.  If you print it, no problem.”

I was shocked when there was a resounding chorus of “Yeah!” from the rest of the class.

Can’t read cursive writing?  Seriously?

I grew up in the era of chalkboards, typewriters and Gestetners (that’s an “ancient” form of a photocopier that was actually just a duplicating machine, in case you young “whipper-snappers” didn’t know.)  I remember we used to get awards for “Penmanship” in school.  I received quite a few in my elementary years and then in high school I started using an old Olivetti typewriter.  If I made a mistake there was no cutting, pasting, deleting or spell-check.  No sirree.  If I made a typo I had to pull the paper out of the typewriter and use tons of white out, or start all over again.

With the invention of the electric typewriter and then later the computer, I noticed as my keyboarding skills improved my handwriting skills seemed to decline.  “Writing” letters became a thing of the past when emailing letters was quicker and far more convenient thanks to cutting, pasting and the ever-popular spell-check.  Instead of writing, I was now printing because over time I just found it faster to print rather than “write” words if I wasn’t able to use my computer.  Texting also limited my usage of writing cursive letters…but that’s a whole other story…

Based on several conversations with young adults and youth, I have come to the conclusion that this generation of youth and children will likely never feel the need to write cursively.  It will become a lost art.

Is cursive writing a thing of the past and no longer needed?  What do you think?

Would love to hear your insights because next week, I will share how “snail mail” and addressing an envelope is also going the way of the dinosaur.

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