Do you still have pen pals?

During the run up to this Christmas period, why not organise your address book and spend time writing a handwritten letter/cards to your loved ones. 

Nothing says you care more than a handwritten letter!

Is technology taking over pen and paper?

As a teacher who teaches writing as part of the National Curriculum, it is becoming increasingly scary that handwriting and writing in general is being fast replaced by technology, which in my professional opinion, is adding to the decreasing results we have in spelling and grammar. Why bother learning how to spell when your computer fixes it for you? 

How do you feel about this topic? Will we even be teaching writing using pen and paper in the near future?

What do you think? Will handwriting, printing or cursive, become a rare art that only exists and historians would practice? Will typing eventually become the only way we can communicate unspoken words to other humans? Will children eventually grow up never knowing how to hold a pencil and write? 

Join our google+ Community on this discussion and help share creative craft ideas to keep this passion of writing alive and SPREAD THE WORD. 

JOIN:

 Shoebox Keeping Letter Writing Alive

Letter writing is a dying art...

Virginia Woolf eloquently called it “the humane art, which owes its origins to the love of friends”, yet letter writing is a dying art, with most people preferring the instant exchange of email and social media.

Interesting facts...

• The earliest means of writing involving pen and paper was developed by the Greeks. 
• In ancient times, pen was made from sharpened wood, metal or bone. 
• A reed dipped in India/China ink, made from cuttlefish secretion was used on papyrus and parchment.
• 5th Century saw the use of goose quills in Saxon England.
• Lead pencils were used by the ancient Greeks but only as a temporary marker, to be rubbed out later.
• It wasn't until the 14th Century that lead pencils became popular and commonly used.
• Cotton paper came from the far East around the 10th Century and became common by the 12 Century.
• Paper made from linen rags was introduced in the 14th Century.
• The Greeks used athlete runners to deliver their letters, where as the Arabs used pigeons. 
• In 1840, the first prepaid stamp nationwide postal delivery service was introduced by Great Britain. 
• Originally, post fees were paid by the receiver and not the sender.
• In 1860, the post office was invented and then it really took off...

It's amazingly astounding that it took centuries to move from the first chippings on a wall to writing onto a piece of paper, however since 1860, the advances of technology have almost made this art form extinct in less than 160 years! Now instead of enjoying the anticipation and joy of a warm, heart felt letter, communications are instant, less personal and more likely to be a 'like' on your facebook. How the convenience of a button has replaced real communication.