And Amidst End of the Semester Assessment, I Give A Lesson On How To Lick an Envelope #WalkMyWorld

Last Fall, Chitunga needed to mail a letter and didn't know how. I took him to the post office and realized he was serious. He never addressed an envelope, placed a stamp, or sealed it to be sent.

It was comical to see the care he took in licking the flap, but then this week, while I was on my chair grading, Chitunga brought a friend over to the house so he could teach him what I taught him last year. Vochan, also age 19, never sent a letter and didn't know how to do it (actually, another kid I work with, Glody, called me recently to ask me where one purchases stamps). It seems to be a generational thing.

And I'm recalling how mailing a letter was part of my teaching in Louisville as I required students to compose to get things done: to request a college application, to register a complaint, or to offer a compliment. I bought a book of stamps and handed them to kids with the instruction, "You won't get a grade until you actually get a response."

It is true that this generation of youth are not used to the postal hugs that just a decade ago were much more familiar. Vochan was applying for a summer job and had no clue where he was to write the address for the potential employer or in what corner to place a stamp. The reality is that such skills don't matter until they do and I am reflecting that there may be something wrong with school if we, as educators, don't offer real-life lessons like sending a piece of mail. Yes, email is another genre that requires action (and so is texting), but there comes a time in every man and woman's life when snail mail will be required.

Vochan, like Chitunga, meticulously licked the envelope like it was poisonous or he might cut his tongue. But I have to say he learned something new this week - a lesson that came at the end of his first semester at Southern Connecticut State University. 

Yup. Once a teacher, always a teacher.