Letters

Olga and Babe Ciarlo

Our society will lose alot if we stop writing letters...

Recently in class, we have been studying WWII and using letters exchanged between Babe Ciarlo, his family, and sister Olga to help understand WWII far beyond a textbook. These personal letters were funny, heartwarming, gut wrenching, tragically poignant, and full of love.

One day I asked my students...

"Does anyone write handwritten notes or letters anymore?"

In the age of 6 second attention spans, non-stop text messaging, twitter, snap-chat accounts, Facebook "friends", etc. it seems as though the personal letter/ note may be destined to extinction.

Statistics:

• The average American sends/receives over 100 e-mails per day.
• In America, over 500 billion text messages are sent each month.
• The average teenager sends around 100 texts per day (yes, that is 3,000+ per month)!
• There has been a drop (mail service) of 10 billion letters in the last 20 years.

To me a handwritten note still means everything...I hope it too will not be crushed by technology.

Receiving notes of encouragement and thanks from my students (also family & friends) means more than a paycheck to me...the extra time it took, the unique penmanship, the sometimes stylish paper, the personality, etc. are reasons why letters are cherished and not discarded into an e-mail trash bin.

One of my favorite letters (it actually doesn't say much-talking about a 1965 Ford Galaxy he had rebuilt for me) from my great-grandpa...a year before he died.

My favorite words from his letter..."with love great grandfather Ed"...