While these means of communication have their advantages, they can’t evoke the joy that comes with opening the letterbox to find a hand-written letter from a friend or relative.
The envelope, the stamp, the postmark: they’re all evidence of the journey, long or short, the letter has made from its writer’s hands to its final destination.
Not even those born and raised in the digital age are immune to the charm of the “good old letter”.
In fact, two Victorian primary schools are reviving the art of writing letters: Year 3 and 4 students from Strathmore Primary School and North Melbourne Primary School have become pen pals, sending letters to each other in Italian.
The project is the brainchild of the Italian teachers from the two schools, Angela Pane and Anna Henwood, who met last term and decided it’d be a fun activity for their students.
First, students learnt how to write a letter; then they penned their first one to their new pen pals, sharing information about themselves, their families, their pets and hobbies.
And every letter was written in Italian from start to finish... what a challenge!
Students from both schools now eagerly await new letters from their pen pals, opening them excitedly and reading them while learning new Italian words.
As the initiative has unfolded, students from the two schools have asked their teachers if they can meet their new friends in person!
Both Pane and Henwood are convinced that this ancient form of communication has become a great learning tool through which students can practise their Italian in a real-life context, expand their vocabulary and make new friends.
It’s a positive experience that we hope to see continue into the future.
