A group of eighth graders in Xu Yang’s Mandarin class at Rye Middle School had a lesson in patience. Accustomed to the instant response of today’s technology these students used … wait for it … the U.S. Postal Service to write to and hear back from a group of similarly aged students in China. They exchanged letters over the holidays, taking upwards of a month for the letters from rural China to arrive. Ms. Yang was delighted with the quality of skill and prose from students near and far and the students loved the connection to their peers across the globe.
— Annette McLoughlin