A stamp collecting club?  Stamps? What is that? Does it run on playstation 5 or what?

Prejudiced. Iam. I accept it.

Amongst the millions of young kids out there, there must be some who would still find it enthralling  to pursue such an hobby, should someone guide them through its essentials, much the same as we were once led through the path of discovery by others that did the same to us.

Let me get once thing straight, though: I was never a very serious philatelist, and I claim the same status nowadays. I don’t have a huge collection (not even a big one, for that matter, and I don't even know if I qualify as a collector...); I did collect in a more organised fashion in the late 70’s early 80’s but most of my collection vanished like a lost girlfriend; i am not a very organised guy, the type that would spend nights going over his collection, perusing it and marvelling at its intricacies...

As such I don’t talk from any acknowledge deserving pulpit and  I’m no authority on anything but me.

I think I simply like stamps. That’s all.

Much the same way as I like art, not being an artist myself. Yes, that’s probably it: I go through stamps as I go through the rooms of an art museum, satisfying myself with the pleasure of admiring beauty and creation.

Of course, as with art, there are stamps I absolutely adore, and stamps I loathe but that’s subject matter for another of my episodic streams of consciousness, because now I digress...

My original point was that no matter what  brave new world technology puts at the ends of our fingers, there are features innate to our strange species  that should not be left to decay into some sort of dormant state and that, if correctly tickled and motivated, should still provide sound paths for the development of skills and acquisition of knowledge that I feel are sometimes hindered by the all inclusive ready served quality of a large part, if not most, of  today’s pastimes.

Curiosity, is one such feature.

Again, I may sound prejudiced, the quintessential boomer talking, but I feel kids were much more curious a few decades ago. Sure they are now much more competent digitally wise and they handle anything with a screen like second nature from tender age, but what about wanting to know? What about inquiring themselves and the world? The world does not run on a playstation.....

The  way forward is probably, as usual, to revisit the old, adapting it to the new, to get the best of both worlds.

And this probably what the Clube Filatélico o Ilhéu has achieved. Somehow, it found the way to motivate and enthral young lads and lassies in a time when the attention grabbing offer for  “just use it, don’t ask why or how” appliances is ever-growing and well implanted.

I suspect though that behind the curtain there’s a good reason for the more than 25 years of well active history. A driving force that, thankfully, is as needed today as it was yesterday, continuously fostering that curiosity in kids that are about to discover the world and its complexity, in the best place to do it: their school.

A teacher! A good and fully commited teacher, in a public school, a good School.

For once, all prejudice aside, reading the history of 25 years of the Clube de Filatelia o Ilhéu of Escola Secundári a Manuel de Arriaga  (O Ilhéu -The Islander Philately Club of Manuel de Arriaga HighSchool, in Horta, Faial Island, the Azores)  makes me strongly suspect I’m right.

Am I not, teacher Carlos Lobão?