Going old school

Handwritten letters connect BMS third-grade pen pals

By GREG WILLIAMS

Sentinel reporter

gwilliams@lewistownsentinel.com

BELLEVILLE -- Hattie Doggett took a trip down memory lane and helped two classrooms of elementary school students share a special, written bond.

"I remember having pen pals in elementary school when I was a kid," said Doggett, a third-grade teacher at Belleville Mennonite School. "It was a great way to keep in touch with friends that I met or never met.

"I remember in third grade how excited we were to receive letters from other children in other school areas," she added. "I kept in touch with several of them throughout my childhood."

In this age of technology, it's easier and faster to send an e-mail or text message than a handwritten letter. But for the past school year, students at Belleville Mennonite School have been corresponding with counterparts at Faith Christian School in Hamilton Square, N.J. They went old-school and formed friendships by communicating exclusively through mail.

"I love the idea of pencil and paper to communicate with other students," Doggett said. "It is so important to not just send an e-mail or text with students learning how to communicate and write. It also helps their handwriting abilities, remembering where a capital goes and punctuation.

"It helps them to see how letters are formed and how to write sentences," she added. "All in all, writing with pencil and paper focuses on reading, handwriting and grammar skills."

Doggett recalls her youth when she had pen pals far and wide.

"I had pen pals through our church missionary programs from all over the world," Doggett said. "I loved receiving letters from others and even the stamps on the envelopes were different.

"I started collecting stamps from all around the world," she added. "I looked online to see about getting started in my third-grade class. There were a lot of Internet connections, but not many pencil and paper ideas."

Doggett previously taught at Faith Christian School before moving back to Pennsylvania. "It was great that this other third-grade teacher wanted to do this because Hamilton Square is a suburban community and Belleville is mostly rural, so when explaining to students in New Jersey farm life was a great example of the differences in communities, which ties into our social studies chapter."

The students also ask questions about their favorite school subjects, food, sports, favorite color, etc. They have never seen each other, so when they describe life in Belleville, it gives their New Jersey counterparts a good picture of where they live and what they like to do.

"In the letters, they introduce themselves, tell a little bit about them and their family," Doggett said. "They mention the pets they have. Each time we write back, we ask a few more questions to get to know the other students."

Doggett has a dozen students in her classroom this year, which is slightly smaller than the Faith Christian School class size of 19. That's why some students who were photographed are holding two letters.

"The students in my class were super excited to receive letters from Faith Christian," Doggett said. "This is the first year that I have been able to have another teacher want to write back using snail mail. The students were looking forward to receiving a letter from their pen pal, but they had to learn patience, to wait for the mail to arrive."

Doggett and her students try to exchange letters every month.

"I had the students in my class start to write the letters because the other teacher had never done it before," she explained.

Although it's the first year for the pen pal project, Doggett hopes it can become an annual tradition.

"It is difficult to get a school willing to do pen pals because of their daily schedule in the classroom," she said. "Both of us teachers see the benefit in writing and have made time for our students to write and experience the excitement of giving and receiving letters. It is a great experience."