Want students to learn language? Revive the lost art of letter writing

I was recently shocked to learn that a friend’s daughter had been beaten black and blue by her teachers in a secondary school for being found in possession of a love letter to a boyfriend! How have things changed so drastically in our schools, where an innocent act of letter writing has been criminalised? I read the letter. The imagery was vivid, the command of language superb. As a teacher of English, I would score it ninety-eight per cent. What, then, is not happening in our schools?