An occupational therapist recognized that her young patients only saw handwriting in an academic context. They had to handwrite things for homework or in school but they didn’t see it in any other place. Not on checks, not in the daily mail, not in lists on the refrigerator, or in notes left for them — handwriting was not part of things that brought them joy.
So, she took it upon herself to handwrite letters to all 84 of the students in those four classes, grades 1-3. She wanted them to learn to associate handwriting with something besides school. She even promised to write them back if they wrote her.
“My overall goal with this entire project is to create a reason for writing to be authentic and delightful and completely optional and also adult-modeled. To model why someone (me) might write something for joy and delight and not at all because they’re academically required to,” she said.
As someone who handwrites a lot, her project brought me joy to see that someone would make the effort to help children experience the pleasure of receiving mail. But beyond that, kudos to her for taking action on something she thought was important.
Maybe handwriting isn’t your passion and writing 84 notes isn’t your thing. Fine. Follow her lead and figure out what is, then do something about it. We too often lament, too rarely act.
Source: The Ocuplaytional Therapist
