The Principles of Envelope Addressing

Follow this guideline for envelopes.

Students don’t seem to know how to write letters, much less address an envelope, these days. I am on a crusade to make sure that changes. An interesting exchange with a student sparked my motivation for this cause. The way he addressed an envelope left me flabbergasted. The middle was left blank and he placed the address of the recipient in the upper left-hand corner.

“What is this? Don’t you know how to address an envelope?” I asked. “They didn’t teach us in school,” he replied. Mind you, this is a student who just graduated from high school. I just took it for granted that everyone knows how to address an envelope. Clearly that is not the case. Luckily for him I love the kids and was in a good mood. So I taught him “The Principles of Envelope Addressing.” It featured a visual presentation, oral exam and fill-in-the blank project. He knew how to properly address a letter after leaving my office.

The sad thing is he is not alone in his lack of letter writing and envelope addressing knowledge. I’ve seen letters with bad spelling, no date and improper grammar. There have been envelops with the stamp in the wrong location, no addresses or covered in who knows what. How are the children going to send letters to the post office? Everything can’t be through e-mail.

I can’t blame the schools for not teaching these skills. Honestly, it’s the parents fault. I learned how to write checks, pen a letter, address an envelope and more from my parents. Clearly these parents left it up to the schools to teach their children every single detail about life. If the schools teach your child everything, what are you doing as a parent?

Perhaps I need to create a practical skills institute. It would offer classes on writing a check, sending a letter, balancing a checkbook and much more. Parents need not worry about teaching these skills to their children. I’ll do it for them, all for the low, low price of $399.99 per student. In no time the students will have the skills they need to take on the future. Or at least address an envelope.