LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – It’s pouring rain when local postman Ben Lovato drives into Lakeport Elementary School to do his lesson, but he’s still smiling.
And as he prepares for his lesson in the back of Mrs. Beedle’s second grade class, the children are noticeably distracted.
They keep looking at the big black mailbox Lovato has put on the back counter.
About two years ago, when a group of 20-somethings walked into the Lakeport Post Office looking for assistance addressing an envelope, Lovato didn’t hesitate to help.
But after another young woman in her early 20s walked in with the same questions less than two weeks later, Lovato began to notice a pattern.
“I started calling around to other post offices and asking if they were experiencing the same thing,” Lovato said. “And sure enough, more and more people have never learned how to address an envelope.”
He said that’s when he first got the idea to teach kids not only how to write a real letter, but about the journey our physical mail takes before reaching recipients on the other end.
“I grew up where you were taught how to write a letter, how to address an envelope and … see how the letter was mailed,” he said. “I feel this art should not be lost, and should be taught in schools and local communities.”
Lovato added, “Everything is text messages, or phone calls, or emails,” and he has a point.
The conveyance of communications is almost universally instantaneous now. Today children rarely have the opportunity to learn how the mail system works, or even develop a curiosity for it, unless educators and parents go out of their way.
“I remember how exciting it was to receive [a] letter back from someone,” Lovato said. “And how eager I was to read and write back.”
Not many would describe writing and sending a letter as a lost art the way Lovato does. Neither was calligraphy or fiber craft once upon a time. Could letter writing be shelved along with them as an obsolete skill that was once common knowledge?
With more and more schools no longer teaching cursive, more emphasis is placed on the speed a person can type than the thought and time that people used to value when writing to others.
Even the Chinese government has expressed its frustration with the younger generation’s lack of knowledge on Mandarin’s written form.
Which is why with the help of some friends who teach at elementary schools, Lovato has begun to bring the “lost art of letter writing” back to Lake County children.
At Lakeport Elementary, Mrs. Beedle’s students still want to know what Lovato has in his mailbox.
Since the students have not yet learned all of their letters, Lovato doesn’t have them write on any envelopes.
He begins with the basics and then tells them about the children whose parents put them in the mail when it was legal over 100 years ago.
Students crowd around his iPad to look at the dated monochrome and sepia photographs. In one is May, a 6 or 7-year-old girl – close in age to Lovato's audience – who was mailed 73 miles away by her parents.
In another, a disgruntled mail carrier in traditional uniform looks at the camera with his infant cargo.
One student can’t help but exclaim, “That’s so awkward!” at the absurdity.
Despite a recent promotion at the post office in Clearlake Oaks, Lovato’s goals for this lost art expand beyond his visits to local schools.
“I would hope this could spawn into something bigger and one day the post office could have a ‘National Day of Letter Writing,’” he said. “One day a year … everyone would write someone a letter instead of emailing or texting.”
Lovato also hopes to get schools to implement their own post office with an elected student postmaster and special postal employees within each classroom to distribute letters between classmates.
Students would learn how to write a letter, an address, where to place a stamp and develop a more intimate knowledge of how mail gets from one place to another.
“If these simple concepts were taught again, it not only would benefit USPS but children and young adults everywhere,” Lovato said.
Anita Swanson, principal of Lakeport Elementary School, agrees. “Kids are motivated by people coming in from the outside.”
When asked if Lovato could return for a future visit, she replied: “Oh gosh yes!”
Before Lovato says goodbye, he promises goodies from the post office. He and Mrs. Beedle’s students venture out into the rain single file where he shows them his mail truck before they all pile into the back for a picture.
It’s clear from his smile and everyone else’s that Lovato’s enthusiasm for a vanishing art is rubbing off on a new generation.
Email Shari Shepard at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .