From letters to envelopes?

By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- In neat script that would have made stern schoolmaster William Holmes McGuffey proud, Ibn Shakoor penciled his words on the lined paper.
"I am writing this letter to ask you to make a stamp for famous writer William Holmes McGuffey," the fifth-grader's writing says. "He published his first children's reader in 1836, which is still being used today."
As Ibn and his schoolmates at East Middle School wrote to the U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday, they became the newest advocates in the campaign to have a U.S. stamp commemorating McGuffey.
McGuffey (1800-1837) became known as the "Schoolmaster of the Nation," writing seven "McGuffey Eclectic Readers," which taught generations of children to read.
McGuffey had moved with his family to the Youngstown area in 1802, settling in Coitsville Township. His homesite farm, now deeded to Mill Creek MetroParks, is a national landmark.
A history lesson
The fifth- and sixth-grade pupils writing the letters all live on the East Side of Youngstown. They know of McGuffey Road and McGuffey Centre.
But they did not know of McGuffey.
Besides having the children practice letter-writing skills Tuesday, teacher Richard Scarsella taught them about McGuffey, his life in Youngstown and his readers.
"His father made a path so his kids can go to school," said Shanequa Harrison, referring to what is now McGuffey Road.
Shanequa said she's seen other people on stamps, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Todd Taylor said he saw Abraham Lincoln on a stamp.
McGuffey deserves one too, Lucas Orr said.
Lucas, who walks to school from his home near McGuffey Plaza, said it "would be good" if the letter he wrote helped get McGuffey's face on a stamp.
"I'd feel good," Keith Phillips added.
Expanding the effort
Scarsella, who also is president of the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society of Youngstown, hopes to expand the letter-writing campaign to other area schools. He hopes the Postal Service gives the children a positive response.
"We've tried every other angle," Scarsella said. "Maybe if the children do it, maybe that might make a difference."
Campaigns to have a stamp commemorating McGuffey have been ongoing since at least 1949, Scarsella said. Besides the Youngstown campaign, others have been initiated by the University of Miami in Ohio, where McGuffey taught, and the University of Virginia, where he also taught and is buried.
"They've declined to do it in the past," Scarsella said. He said he hopes for a stamp of any denomination and with any picture, perhaps an image of a reader or portrait of McGuffey.
A goal is to have the stamp issued in 2006, the 170th anniversary of the first reader.
The process
The local historical society had written letters in the late 1990s, hoping for a stamp to commemorate McGuffey's 200th birthday. The request didn't get very far.
Scarsella said the group had to hire an attorney to help get a list of criteria for the selection of stamp subject matter from the Postal Service. Scarsella said Postal Service workers also failed to respond to a request seeking the number of letters on file in support of a McGuffey stamp; he was told verbally that they are discarded "after a few years," he said. His inquiries into the matter instigated a review of the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee by the Office of the Inspector General, Scarsella said. The 1999 review suggested better record-keeping and a full-size committee (at the time, there were three vacancies).
The 15-member volunteer Advisory Committee makes recommendations on stamp subject matter to the Postmaster General, according to Postal Service materials. Although the group receives thousands of suggestions each year, the committee recommends about 25 new subjects for commemorative stamps.
The committee's deliberations are confidential.
What's appeared
Among stamps that made news in 2003 were those recognizing Mickey Mouse and friends; singer, actor, athlete and civil-rights activist Paul Robeson; children's author Dr. Seuss; the Pacific coral reef; the snowy egret; reptiles and amphibians; sickle-cell disease awareness; country music artist Roy Acuff; musician Henry Mancini; novelist Zora Neale Hurston; early football heroes; American artist Mary Cassat; the Korean War Veterans Memorial; Audrey Hepburn; lighthouses; the Wright brothers' first flight; the Louisiana Purchase; civil-rights activist Cesar Chavez; and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Scarsella does not slight anyone else receiving space on a stamp but thinks McGuffey also should get his due. If Mickey Mouse and Lucille Ball -- who have both appeared on stamps -- can be honored by the Postal Service, then McGuffey should be honored as well, he said.
"His readers educated generation after generation of children. They've been read by more people than any other books except the Bible and Webster's dictionary," he said. "It would seem that if we would honor a myriad of figures and issues, we should honor this man."