Family & School
Time Capsule Project

This is an open-source, volunteer-driven, free-to-use, pre-K through 12th grade, ongoing student motivation project. By annually exchanging and keeping family letters about dreams, updated goals, and family stories (roots & goals) self confidence rises. Students change! Achievement soars!

Family & School Time Capsule Project Services

Using annual family letters over 14 years to constantly refocus on family roots, history, and student goals.

Letters to Student

Every annual letter each parent, grandparent, or other relative writes to their student, from Pre-K through 12th grade, have the same two components separated by a year: dreams for their student and a story from the letter writer's life they want their student to know. Imagine the power of each of these 14 letters, read twice the years they are written, 10 months apart! Imagine how student self-confidence and self-image will improve! Such intimate time, twice a year with each parent, and every letter writer, can become a priceless tradition in family history!

Pre-K to 2nd grade Letters

Each year each parent & grandparent writes and reads their letter to their student, offering to answer any questions. A parent prepares a self-addressed envelope to hold copies of all letters their student receives that year. The original letters are always kept at home as vaulable family records. The grade's School Time Capsule Postmaster Volunteer collects these envelopes and places them into the 700-pound School Time Capsule Vault, usually in the school lobby. The next year 10 months later, they return the envelopes to the students just before the annual letter writing so the 10 month old letters can be read again by each author to the child. It is recommended the letter writing start before Thanksgiving so students can talk with the letter writers about the letter they are writing. This increases the number of letters that will be written.

3rd to 11th grade Letters

In 3rd grade, growing literacy allows 3 changes: 1) Students themselves voluntarily begin writing to each parent, grandparent, or other relative, asking for a letter back about that relatives dreams for them. Another family history story is included with every letter written. If this is done before the Thanksgiving holidays it allows students to talk with the potential letter writers over Thanksgiving and Christmas vacations. Such visiting increases the quality and thought going into the letters. 2) Students also prepare their own self-addressed envelope in a class period, best done in January. The envelope, with the current date, student's name and address on the envelope, holds all letters received by the student that year. 3) Students then write a letter to themselves with their own thoughts about each letter they received, and their own dreams for their own future. A copy of this letter also goes into the self-addressed envelope which is then stored in the school's Time Capsule Vault by the Postmaster Volunteer.

12th grade Letters

This annual cycle is repeated until the 12th grade. Ten month old envelopes are always returned to students by the grade’s Postmaster Volunteer before the next years letter writing. They are re-read and taken home just before the letter writing process starts. In the 12th grade all dreams written about change to be 10-years into the future. These 12th grade envelopes remain in the school's Time Capsule Vault until the 10-year high school class reunion. Imagine how the turnout for the 10-year high school reunion will grow!
(Middle schools can also have all 8th grade letters be about dreams 10-years into the future. This establishes a 10-year middle school 8th grade reunion tradition. It provides middle schools with a powerful resource in former students returning who can speak about life and recommendations after 8th grade.)

Results & 10-year Reunions

With roots and goals constantly being explored every year in such letter writing, students become more focused and motivated, more bonded with parents, grandparents, and involved relatives, and more self-confident, more well behaved. School achievement increases as students focus more actively on their own life goals. Unplanned pregnancies, fighting, and the attraction of gangs, all decrease! Teachers enjoy teaching again! Imagine the turnout for 10-year reunions as students return to pick up their 10-year old letters! Imagine how school support, as well as involvement as citizens, will grow! Due to potentially abusive relationships the letter writing is never mandatory but can be replaced by another writing assignment. Also others can write the letter to a student such as anyone in the school, or involved in a student's life.

How Voluntering as School Time Capsule Postmaster Changes Life

Volunteers see the change!

Postmasters work less than 24 hours over the entire school year for the grade they are Postmaster for. They can volunteer to be Postmaster for more than one grade. They help these priceless letters follow the students and return home.

Project is very low cost!

It is recommended a parent fund-raising campaign be done after the first year for the 700 pound vault needed to function as the school Time Capsule holding the letters. This is the a time for more educating of families about the Project. The vault should be located in the highest visibility location possible so as many students as possible see it daily, usually in the school lobby.

Obvious Growth in student academics

Schools will experience a lowering of dropout rates with rising grades and achievement. Fewer behavioral issues will be hindering such progress! Student self-confidence grows! With all students in all grades receiving annual letters from each parent, grandparent, or other close relative, student achievement soars!

correlation between letter writing & progress is clear

See the report covering the School Effectiveness Indices (SEI) scores from 2006 through 2023 in 32 non-magnet DISD middle schools. The writing of letters for the School Time Capsule Project by all students is now more highly correlated with ever higher SEI scores!

Student, parent, & Educator Testimonials

While hundreds have valued this project since 2005, the online collection of statements is just starting.
The Family and School Time Capsule Project was born in the 2004/05 school year at Quintanilla Middle School after teachers discussed ways to improve student achievement and graduation rates. The initial focus on students writing about life goals expanded over the years to include the exploration of family roots in annual letters from each parent and grandparent about dreams and family history stories. By 2019 such priceless discussions within families, ultimately documented in letters within the family, more than doubled the 40% graduation rates that existed before 2005. As student achievement grew, the use of the School Effectiveness Indices (SEI) scores was started to better document progress from increased student and family focus on goals and family roots. But the Covid-19 Pandemic struck in 2020! All letter writing stopped! SEI scores dropped! Only Rosemont Upper School resumed letter writing in 2021. Their SEI score grew as other Project schools SEI scores dropped. By 2023 Rosemont had gained 10 SEI points to become among the two highest SEI scoring of all 33 middle schools. Quintanilla, among the highest 3 SEI scoring middle school in 2018 & 2019, never resumed letter writing after 2020. They lost SEI points until by 2024 only 2 of the 30 middle schools in DISD had lower SEI scores than Quintanilla! Family letters about goals and family roots make a real difference! In 2024 South Oak Cliff High School (SOC) became the first high school to use the all-grade, all student model of the Project. In 2024 the SEI for SOC went from a 10-year SEI average in 2023 that was third from the bottom among the 21 non-magnet high schools to being 3rd from the top of all 21 high schools with their 2024 SEI score! The goal for 2025 is to improve the SOC letter writing focus on roots and goals, and ultimately improve the SOC 2025 SEI score to be the highest of all 21 non-magnet high schools! Already, with the 2024 score of 54.0, SOC has a higher SEI score than 40% of magnet schools! I welcome any questions. Please put “Time Capsule Project” in the subject line and email questions to bbetzen@aol.com. - Bill Betzen
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Improve schools you love anywhere

This simple project focused on family roots and student goals can dramatically improve any school in the World with the work of volunteers supported by educators. As an open-source project it is free to use. We only ask that improvements discovered be shared with our online community.

Family & School Time Capsule Project

School Time Capsule Vault
South Oak Cliff, in 2024, was the first DISD high school to have all students in all grades write letters to each parent asking for a letter back about their dreams for the student, and with a story from the family history.