Did you learn cursive in elementary school? What grade were you in when you began to type? Chances are, you'd be surprised by the expectations for lesson plans these days.

In our first episode, we’re taking a pulse on the state of writing in elementary classrooms today. We’ll speak with a group of 2nd and 3rd grade teachers, based in Southern California, to learn about the shifts they've seen in how school work is done and hear why they jumped on an opportunity to start a pen pal letter writing program.

We’ll also hear from a pair of students who became pen pals to get their take on this “new” way of communicating. They’ll even let us in on the letters they wrote to each other.

To learn more about how you can support letter writing in classrooms, please visit hellodearist.com.