Pencil to Paper

I was teaching 6th grade today, and we watched one of those current events news programs for kids. One of the stories was about how there is this one man who is trying to bring back the art of letter writing by going into schools and doing workshops with the kids. It seemed kind of sad to me, in that letter writing was a life skill that was taught to us in school. Even if people write emails more than hand-written letters, it's a skill to be able to write a half-decent message that gets your point across, or entertains, or persuades, or whatever. Kids these days learn about persuasive writing, but it's more like a monologue or a speech. I asked the kids in the class if any of them ever write for fun - whether their thoughts, stories, whatever. Literally, one girl raised her hand. I  asked if anyone ever wrote a letter (or email) to someone they know for fun, and one other girl raised her hand. 

As someone that enjoys writing for fun, and someone that has had to do it a lot in college and for communicating in different jobs, I wonder what the future of writing will look like for these kids when they enter the workforce. Maybe they're right to an extent, in that the skills people will need are changing. But, the art of writing is certainly still important, even if it is mostly for online communication and publication. If anything, it's more important when you have to carefully choose your words for short bursts of information (which I'm guessing lots of people don't put as much careful consideration into before they click post or send). Also, people still send cards for birthday and to thank people, etc... right? Am I the only one? 

Anyway, I hope that this classroom is not indicative of most classrooms out there, although I fear it could be. Lots of kids don't ever just sit with a pencil and paper for much time anymore. All I know is, Penny is (so far) one of the few that do. I hope that doesn't change.