Teaching students about stamps

EJ Foley

I have just started a stamp collecting course in 3 public schools here in Calgary with just over 100 students between 6 and 15 I hope to teach them about collecting and some of the history behind the stamps and where they come from so if you know of anyone who may want to donate stamp related materials please let me know thanks you can reach me at cwdancer@telus.net if you are interested in helping out

Dan Shilcrat

Hi EJ, The young men & ladies of that age I have taught were most attracted to Postal History.. Covers with a historical tie-in, illustrated advertising, early flights, soldiers mail, events like a Coronation, ship mail, unusual origin-destination combinations etc. Topical stamps do well with all ages too. Good Luck. It is most worthwhile. Dan

John John H. Talman

Probably a little over 30 years ago my son attended Sir Adam Beck public school in Etobicoke. They started a program called electives where the students could choose from a number of leisure activities to take part in for about one hour. I volunteered to do Stamp Collecting as an elective for the ten weeks. Among the other electives was Chess, Knitting, etc. with gymnastics being the elective for those who couldn't decide what they wanted to do or for those who got kicked out of another elective. The first year the elective Stamp Collecting was the most popular one with the most participants. The first day a large group of girls and boys showed up and a volunteer teacher listened outside to see if I ran into any disruptions I couldn't handle. It was only once a week and I found it fun with so many eager students. Several of them showed up with albums they had been given and were quite proud of. One of the things I did was to bring a large world wide mixture to the class and told them there was a prize in several categories such as most number of countries found, most animals found, etc. Every student got something but the winners got more than the others. The kids were probably about 8 to 11 years old and they were enthusiastic. I showed them how various things could help them with their collecting - catalogues, perf guages, colour charts, magnifying glasses, etc. I plan to hand out some cheap stamps with some candy for any kids who show up at my door on Halloween but after that I can send you whats left. Perhaps you could publish your address in this thread. I don't think there would be any objection to this as it would be for the good of the hobby. John

EJ Foley

Sounds great John any advice you could give would be appreciated I hope you don't mind if I use some of your ideas My address is 23 Deercrest Close SE Calgary Alberta T2J 5S2 my cell 403-389-3125

Ted Tyszka

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Ted Tyszka

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EJ Foley

its ok I have an excellant junk mail sorter and a 357 python

John John H. Talman

Did phone you EJF but just for the record. Thank you for your comments and of course I have no objections to you using any of these ideas and happy you may do this. When talking to young and old I have often brought out a Canada #1044 issued for Treffle Berthiaume whom I think was founder of the Newspaper La Press. When you turn the stamp upside down you get a monkey who looks very much like "Curious George" that many people have heard of. This does surprise many and may cause them to take a closer look at their stamps. Good luck with your project. John

Dan Shilcrat

EJ, I too, wish you good luck with your project. It is very rewarding & satisfying. I used a Curriculum developed by the late John Walsh. Director of the A.P.S. Teaching Young adults 'Stamps' was a passion of his. In his official capacity, he attended StampShows across the U.S. Meeting & corresponding with dozens of teachers & gleaning the best ideas. He graciously gave me a printed copy of his final curriculum at a Show in Chicago. I found it an invaluable teaching tool.

John John H. Talman

It helped me to have a good mate - my Irish wife and over supper to-nite she reminded me that she filled in for me on two occasions in my elective class on Stamp Collecting - it was over 30 years ago and our son was in the class so pardon my memory. The electives could have been for over 10 weeks as well and may have come up in more than one school year. My wife collects the stamps of Ireland of course and the Che Guevera issue is much in the news this month with mixed reviews. Not sure if she spoke about Irish stamps when she filled in but I do know I have now been brain washed by the Irish and not necessarily on just the stamps. Foley is also an Irish name so if we keep in touch, which I hope we will, I will probably be influenced even more by the people of this tiny Island nation. EJF has now given us his address out front so if you feel you have any donations or tips to make to him please don't hesitate to do so. He has a great plan! John

John Wagner

That is really great! That just shows me that there are children interested in stamp collecting if approached from the right perspective! I have been feeling like a child recently myself. As I sort and mount my Space Exploration stamps I am watching NASA videos about the flights I have stamps from, and as I watch other videos it motivates me to search for stamps to commemorate them.

Steven Tomisek

EJ,

If you haven't already done so, I suggest that you check out the information and resources available on the APS webpage for Educators and Youth Club Leaders at https://stamps.org/Educators.

John John H. Talman

EJ: You said you were open to ideas for your project and with young and old when I tried to get their philatelic attention I might drop a name or two who had collected stamps. At first, many years ago, I would mention Roosevelt, KGV, Charlie Chaplin, etc. It was probably around the early 2000's that I learned that John Lennon had a collection given to him by an older cousin and that he even added stamps to that collection. The National Postal Museum had it in 2005 and their late curator Wilson Hulme spoke of it. He said "Typically young boys aren't interested in rarity. They tend to concentrate on geography and colors. If they come back to collecting when they have more time and more money that is when collections become exceptional. If only both had lived longer. Please try to keep us up to date as your classes begin. All the best, John

andrew Hellenschmidt

John you might add Queen Elizabeth II. Curiously Bill Gross' mom got him started. I've also read Janet Yellen collects. It is always delightful to see women collectors as it's generally a male dominated hobby.

I had the chance to view Lenon's album which was a bit of a mess but rather interesting. One can only think of what Freddy Mercury's looked like.

John John H. Talman

Andrew: I was in London in 1980 for the big stamp show that year. Queen Elizabeth walked thru the exhibits about 20 ft. from me. I thought she was extremely brave as the IRA were on a bit of an uproar at that time as I recall. A visit to Tokyo in 1981 where once again some local Royalty showed up. My comments were directed to EJ for his stamp class but if you want a bit of a playboy leader just look at Sarkozy of France whom I understand is an ardent Collector.