On a few occasions, kids, young and old have always managed to surprise me with numerous remarks unthinkable to the grown up minds. Most of the time they left me speechless and later thought about the things we take for granted in life. Several times, though very unlikely, I was irked / annoyed by the remarks but somehow refused to retaliate when it all became quite clear to me that they were only kids; naive and honest.
Very recently, a class of thirteen year olds had a lesson with me about how to appreciate the love of a mother. One of the follow up activities was for them to create a Mother’s Day card that included a message to their moms. To add more fun to the activity, I suggested to them to mail their cards (as they are in a boarding school) to their moms. The kids loved the idea and began to imagine the look on their moms’ faces when the cards finally reached them. Smiles all around until one girl raised her hand. “Ah, a question,” I thought, half expecting what she was about to say.
“Yes?”
“How do we mail the cards?” she uttered.
“It’s very easy to do. How come you don’t know how it’s done?” I replied. I was pretty certain that the others knew the answer.
“OK, class. Who can tell me how it’s done?”
There were 25 of them and all of them shook their heads. Surprised, I asked them once again.
“Are you sure?”
It never occurred to me that these young things had never been to the post office, purchased a stamp and let alone mail a letter in their whole entire thirteen years of lives. The curious expression did it for me. They honestly didn’t know all these. Poor souls.
“How many of you have received a letter before?” I asked just out of curiosity. A few hands were up.
Then, I began rambling about the joy of being the recipients of all the wonderful letters, cards, parcels etc as compared to the modern and hi-tech emails and text messages. At the back of my mind, it finally dawned on me that these young ones had never been given the opportunity to experience snail mailing. Unlike myself and many of us, snail mail was the in-thing. Everybody just knew how to do it. And of course I told these kids how it’s done – step by step, that is. If only I could take them to the post office there and then for a hands-on experience.
