Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/939681
Stockton to Portola, where they read the four-page letter to Hutchins' current students. "It made us smile, it made us cry, it made us laugh again," Vickers' mother, Tyra Vickers-Kearney, tells Hutchins in the TV segment. "I loved the whole letter. I loved the fact that it is a letter from him. I'm still in awe over that." Vickers touched on several topics in his high school letter to himself, from Dwayne " The Rock" Johnson being "the man" in wrestling to a political prediction that maybe in the year 2010, there would be a black vice president. For Vickers' family, the letter will be a precious remembrance of their son for years to come. Hutchins has made the assignment to his middle school , high school and continuation students for most of his 29 years of teaching. Each day during the last week s of school , h e ask s th em to write a page on school issues, friendship issues, current events, goals for the future, their view of life, a shout-out to classmates, and personal things they want to include. Despite his assurances to students that they will want to have this letter in the future, in truth, not everyone completes the assignment. ose who do, turn in their letters to Hutchins with a self-addressed envelope. He himself never reads the letters, but bundles them in several layers of plastic and duct tape to preserve them, and then labels them. Over the years, with the help of classroom aides, he has devel- oped a master file of 650 letters, of which 350 have been successfully returned to the student writers. e dawn of Facebook several years ago has made the distribution task much easier, he says. Besides Vickers' letter, several other poignant letters have surfaced. One was from another deceased student, whose daughter learned from the letter that she had already picked out her future daughter's name. While Hutchins has learned of the deaths of several students, he has also heard from many others who went on to have happy and successful lives. "They grow up," he says. "They may not be CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, but they go on to get good jobs and raise families." At least one former student from Hutchins' all-time "class from hell" sent a note of apology for his past behavior and what the class put Hutchins through. at realization came to the former student only after having children of his own. Since letters are stashed away for 15 years, the rewards from the project are delayed. But then, Hutchins points out, he is able to learn about his former students' later lives — something not every teacher is able to do. Although he has received many complimentary Face- book messages from these students, Hutchins says he is most touched by the fact that they are so surprised he kept his promise to hold and deliver the letters. "I'm a big proponent of this assignment," Hutchins says. "It's given me extreme joy in keeping track of these students. Of everything I've produced in the classroom, I consider this to be the best." Watch the Inside Edition segment at bit.ly/2zxwojK. " It's given me extreme joy in keeping track of these students. Of everything I've produced in the classroom, I consider this to be the best." 19 F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 018