This Teacher Delivered The Letters He Had Students Write To Themselves Over 20 Years Ago

This is a remarkable story of dedication and inspiration. Bruce Farrer is an ordinary high school teacher in Saskatchewan, Canada, with an extraordinary dedication. He has his students write a ten page letter to their future selves.

Some of us have done this assignment or one like it, in our childhoods. The difference is that Farrer’s students got their letters twenty years after they wrote them.

The 72 year old English teacher is now retired. Since 1977, Farrer has assigned this task to his students. He uses Facebook and other means to hunt down his former students and deliver their mail. He still has 700 letters to mail in the next twelve years.

Each recipient has expressed varying degrees of surprise for different reasons. Some were surprised to have simply gotten the forgotten document. All were amazed to ‘hear’ their fourteen year old selves talk about their expectations and hopes for the future.

The students indicated whether Farrer could read the letter when they turned it in. The only ones he reads regardless are that of the deceased students. He reads them to gauge whether sharing it with the family would be painful or comforting.