Lab 030: Signed, Sealed, Delivered
About this episode
This episode came to life as we followed conversation building up on our timelines over the past few months. People are photographing themselves buying stamps, sending packages, and one of our favorites - mailing letters. We started to think more about it - the handwritten letter just feels so elevated. It conveys importance, formality, intentionality. It’s a lot different when you receive a text message compared to a postcard or letter, and we started asking ourselves why.
THE United States Postal Service
More background on the United States Postal Service’s latest woes:
Postmaster General DeJoy testifies before house panel
Without additional funds, mail-in voting may be delayed
DeJoy’s cost-saving tactics cause confusion among employees at the postal service
Post Office Appreciation
Do you remember PostSecret? It’s a website where people can send anonymous postcards or letters. They’re shared with the world, but no one knows who you are.
Did you know people in rural areas used to have to travel to the post office to get mail? Read about the invention of Rural Free Delivery and its permanence in the early 1900s.
Are you looking for a pen pal? Start with these services, but remember - safety first!
Written Language
We started by asking Dr. Wiley where letters come from. Once he told us the connection between the letter A and alep, the word for ox, we couldn’t unsee it. Learn more about why letters look the way they do.
Learn more about The Evolution of Writing from Denise Schmandt-Besserat
“The Endangered Art of Letter Writing” by Julie Beck
There are neural circuits in the brain that are unique to handwriting. You don’t get them from tracing or typing letters. These circuits are in a specific area of the brain responsible for letter recognition. Handwriting could help young children learn to read. - “The effects of handwriting experience on functional brain development in pre-literate children.” James & Engelhardt
Letter recognition & processing is important for reading
In preliterate children, delays in letter recognition are strong predictors of reading disabilities later
“Handwriting is important for the early recruitment in letter processing of brain regions known to underlie successful reading”
Handwriting training is better than typing training for word reading and writing
Learn more about the alphabetic principle
Reading involves multiple systems - We mentioned ortholographic and phonological in the lab, but there are others
The FUisform GyrUS x 2
Learn more about the anatomy, function, and interesting history of the fusiform gyrus
A region of the left fusiform gyrus is involved in letter recognition
Words and faces and the fusiform gyrus
Literacy as Freedom
Nat Turner Rebellion / Southhampton Insurrection - Nat Turner could read and write
How Literacy Became a Powerful Weapon in the Fight to End Slavery
White slaveowners thought Black literacy was a threat to slavery and created laws to make reading & writing illegal
Later, literacy tests were used to disenfranchise Black voters
Fun References
Beanie Babies - Apparently there are some of the stuffed toys that are still of value!
Complaining Clothes from Issa Rae - When fans of Insecure suggested Issa Rae film the next season of the show on Zoom because of COVID-19, she said absolutely not, because they would just complain, in their complaining clothes, like they always do! The tweet has been deleted, so you had to be there!
Did you know there’s a national K-8 handwriting competition? Pass it along if you know a kid who should enter!
Guest Expert
Our guest expert on written language is Dr. Bob Wiley. He is the Director of the Cognitive and Neural Science of Learning Lab at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His work focuses on improving learning outcomes in the area of written language.
Check out his latest post - “Why do letters look the way they do?”