Witchy says: When I last left you I was gaping at a mountain of tests that had been waiting to be graded on my desk for a very long time... You don't know what happened later!!! I must have fallen asleep because the things I saw were too strange, even for a witch.

I was wandering through a dark thick wood not being able to find my way back to the Magic Village, when I looked up at the sky, and I noticed that the leaves on the trees were not leaves at all but sheets of tests and some of them were already marked but many others were not marked yet. And they were all shaken by a harsh cold howling wind!!!

It was when I was in my deepest despair that a tiny winged child surrounded by a cloud of twinkling stars appeared to me. It was a fairy and her name is Little Misty: she is a little girl with delicate features and an unusual character, as you will see soon!

Little Misty: "Hi Hazel! I can see you are a bit troubled. Perhaps you're a little terrified by all these ugly monster-tests. Can I help you?"

Witchy: "Yeeees pleeeaaase! I really can't go on with all these meaningless sheets which are making me forget the Standard English I learnt in Oxford... "

Little Misty: "They look so terrifying just because you think they are meaningless. Actually you can get a lot of interesting information from them. Much more than the level of language mastery your students have attained".

Witchy: "And what on earth can I find in them? Not correct English, sure..."

Little Misty: "They can tell you a lot about your students' personalities if you just look at them from the right angle. I mean, if you don't focus straight on the meaning of the words or grammar correctness but try to look at them with your eyes' corner".

Witchy: "I don't see the point..."

Little Misty: "You'd better visit an oculist... the only problem is that the Magic Village oculist is very famous and popular and you should stand in a queue for at least two months! So I'll give you these graphological glasses which will help you see incredible things whose existence you would have never guessed...

That's how I wore the magic graphological glasses which made me see beyond rules and spelling, meanings and punctuation and disclosed a new undiscovered exciting world:

My students' personalities as they could be read through their own writings!!

The first thing I saw clearly when I wore them (after waking up from another nightmare during which I wandered through a dark headmaster's room...) were alphabet letters turning into human beings; it was then that I understood the meaning of that dream:

a person's writing is a metaphor and a projection of their personality

I'll try to explain: the science of graphology is basically empirical since it is mainly based on observation and comparisons among styles of writing and personalities. However some wizards claim it is also scientifically well sounded. They bring as an evidence the fact that body's left side of a person is represented by the right side of his writing and his body's right side is represented by the left side of the same writing; all this is supposed to be caused by the crossing of the neurological pathways typical in muscle brain center.

I can't say more because, as you know, I'm a witch (the Farmer would add: "... and a very dumb one!") and not a scientist so I hasten to get rid of this difficult matter. I will only try to highlight the poetic metaphorical aspects of graphology which sum up to the concept that

a person's writing is an image of that same person.

Now let's take in consideration some of the most important aspects of writing:

Direction of lines: We have all been taught to write in straight lines but almost nobody writes this way. Sometimes students' tiredness can be considered a reason for a descending line. Generally speaking descending lines may be caused by depression or pessimism. On the other hand ascending lines may indicate optimism. When we write we move from left to right, in other words we progress. The activity of writing may therefore be interpreted as a movement toward the future. It may be said it represents our hopes and dreams.

When most letters are unconnected it shows a person who is an egocentric. Lack of end strokes indicates a shy person.

When the first letter stands apart it shows a cautious person.

A person who writes with wide space lines may live a life of order and system. These people have executive ability and reasonableness. But if the space between the lines becomes too wide it may indicate a person who likes to keep their distance.

Small spaces between the lines may indicate a person who likes to be around other people. Overlapping lines may indicate an emotional disorder.

The margins: The width of the left and upper margins shows the amount of the distance a student wants to maintain from others. Wide margins are often in handwriting of proud or shy people. Pathologically self-conscious people will watch and control both the left and right margin.

On the contrary It may be said that narrow upper margins betray informality. No margins is indicative of a person who wants no distance between other people. They want to be one with the world.

The slant: It may be said that the right slant is the most common and most natural slant.

The left direction is interpreted as the direction towards the mother as well as the past. Left slant writing is seen more often in girls than in boys. Writers with left slant are generally much closer to their mothers.

The upright slant is found in young people who are very independent in life.

The intensity of primary pressure indicates our strength and vitality. The intensity of secondary pressure indicates our aims and inner convictions.

In the middle zone the writers daily routine is shown. The social behavior, relations, preferences and rejections.

The lower zone harbours manifestations of things not yet known to the writer. There we see what fills the unconscious.

If a person's handwriting is hardly legible the owner generally is afraid of letting people see inside themselves. They don't like to be judged and are generally very insecure under a mask of strength and self-confidence.

Size of letters: The size of a letter is indicative of the writers self reliance. A letter may be tall and wide.

Tall capitals are people who tower above the rest. Tall initials come from impressive people.

Small capitals are people who are modest in nature. They concentrate on facts, not ideas.

Wide letters are extroverted people. Narrow letters come from loners.

Deep garlands indicate people who take things too tragically.

Flat garlands tend to come from the practical business man.

Square garlands tend to come from narrow minded people.

High arcades show artistic gifts.

Low arcades show hypocrisy.

General angles show people who have contradictions in feelings.

Witchy: "Oh Little Misty! Only a fairy could be so poetic as to see garlands and arcades in a child's writing!"

Little Misty: "If you wear my graphological spectacles you'll see much more poetic and touching things than that! You will see your kids' souls... See you soon!"

Witchy says: so Little misty promised me she would come back soon with a Xmas parcel full of graphology activities for students. Yes! Why not to teach kids how to learn more about their friends by interpreting their handwriting? It could be a useful communicative exercise to learn "how to describe people's personalities".

Just for once I will stay in line with the Framework of European languages as it was approved by a bunch of *burn out* teachers of the world famous Wizardy Council of Europe...

Cauldrons of love from...