Most schools assign email addresses to students for school use. Usually, the format for the email address involves obvious identifiers like first initial, last name, and perhaps graduation year.
Here at DLSHS, we have a peculiar practice of assigning a series of numbers which are de facto serial numbers: five digits, beginning with the number '2', ending with our school top level domain of @dlshs.org. Clearly, they act as the student's identification number, and perhaps they offer the student a level of anonymity.
What is not clear, however, is how the numbers are assigned. The numbers might simply be assigned randomly, maybe numbers follow a sequence, and perhaps there is some logic which is only available to those far above my pay grade!
Surely, however, we can refer to students by more than a series of numbers. Wouldn't independent school development officers want to keep in touch with future alumni without having to refer to some sort of matrix or database? What about when our students apply for college?
What is more appealing? Receiving an email from 24601@dlshs.org or from jvaljean15@dlshs.org. Hey ... wait a minute.
Last I checked, 24601 was Jean Valjean's prisoner number! Surely, the students of DLSHS are not prisoners! And, when they graduate, they're not on parole! Javert might disagree.
