SAFETY: Snail mail is more safely monitored because the mail makes it directly into the hands of the educator who then passes it on to his/her students. With the increased rate of Internet fraud, it is relatively effortless for a person to masquerade as someone else.. We do not want our children communicating with an adult stranger who pretends to be an innocent child who then proceeds to have ongoing and uncensored communication with a youngster. In addition, children and more specifically adolescent youth, frequently choose to correspond about items and topics deemed inappropriate for school. Email communication is often times less monitored and in-turn, not as safe. Through Sincerely Yours, all mail is sent to the teacher’s attention at the school, with individual envelopes inside addressed to each of the students. The teacher is then responsible for reviewing the content of each letter, utilizing his or her discretion, to ascertain the appropriateness of the content prior to passing the letters onto the children.

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS: Sincerely Yours wants to empower children all over the world and give them the opportunity to learn from and about other children and nations. Because not all children in all countries, districts and/or schools can afford to have equitable numbers of computers, should the Internet or email be the primary communication mechanism, many teachers would not opt to utilize this program in their classrooms as they may deem needing to use the computers for correspondence as a hindrance. They may not be able to have all students correspond simultaneously due to a lack of resources and in turn, may give up on the program if they even begin. The use of “snail-mail” and writing the letters by hand will allow teachers to instruct their students to write all at once. They can even turn pen-palling time into a formal lesson that all can be productively engaged in concurrently! Because our program has a massive cultural component, we are incredibly concerned with being accessible to all children regardless of economic status and conditions. So, with Sincerely Yours, all you need to be prepared to engage in this phenomenal program is paper and pencils (and stamps and envelops of course)!

EXCITEMENT: It is so exciting for a child to receive a letter in an envelope addressed directly to them! For school age children, teachers can even use the opportunity to discuss the process of how a letter travels from one child to another incorporating social studies, geography and the complexities associated with the postal system into the pen-palling experience.

HANDWRITING SKILLS: School-age children need to maximize on every opportunity available for them to improve upon their communication skills. Precise and decipherable handwriting enhances ones ability to communicate effectively and engage a reader on a level that would enable them to read your entire letter and want to respond. After all, neatness and legibility are important when a letter is really going to be read by someone else .