The Lost Art of Passing Notes

Rediscovering the Lost Art of Passing Notes

When I was young, passing notes was a favorite pastime. My friends and I were forever inventing creative ways to pass notes without the teachers finding out. It wasn’t until my junior year of high school that pretty much everyone had a cell phone. With the advent of texting, you could pass notes to people in a whole other classroom! Everyone thought they were being incredibly subtle about it by hiding their phone under their desk. The best part was that even if a teacher caught you, they couldn’t read the note to the rest of the class, and if they tried to make you read it, you could always say you deleted it. Texting replaced note-passing in schools, and I for one would like to see it come back, inside and outside of the classroom.

Now, I want to clarify that I’m in no way advocating that everyone stop paying attention in class and write notes all day long. Use your best judgment about when it’s appropriate to indulge in the passing of notes. That said, my friends and I passed notes often. In third grade we sat at tables that were grouped together with four or five people in a cluster. For this situation, we developed “flick notes” – teeny tiny words written on teeny tiny scraps of paper which were then balled up and flicked at the recipient (hence the name). Back when third grade was still an innocent time, our notes were nothing scandalous. Nor could they be very long – “I’m bored,” was a favorite, as was “Math sucks” and “Tag at recess?” Breaks were short, you had to plan your games ahead of time.

In my senior year of high school, I decided to revive the passing of notes, with a slight update: instead of individual notes, my three best friends and I passed around a notebook. It was plain blue and by the end of the year it was held together with duct tape and prayers, but it was the content that was special. We wrote about how ridiculous our teachers were (seriously, who decorates a classroom with cacti?), who we were crushing on, what college would be like. We shared our triumphs and our tribulations, and looked like diligent note-takers all the while, and now we have a whole notebook of memories to look back on and embarrass each other with.

Even if you’re no longer in school, you can still pass notes. In college, my best friend and I would leave notes on each other’s cars just to remind the other person how awesome she is, and in the workplace, a simple “Cute top!” or “Smile, it’s Wednesday!” placed on a coworker’s desk while they’re in the restroom is sure to brighten their day. So grab your pencils and bring back the passing of notes!

Photo by theogeo.