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be that in the school setting, first and last names were so commonly used inseparably by the teacher in calling the roll or in reprimanding, that when writing in school, in any case, the children profoundly identified each other and themselves by first and last names both.
    Two of the children achieve moments of stylistic eloquence. One, Susan A., creates a vivid concrete image which is enhanced by her use of alliteration and a forceful rhythm: “some trees were bent and broken.” The other, Sally, opens with a powerful specific image—“Your seat is empty”—and then reinforces it with parallel structure: “Your stocking is not finished.”
    It could be argued that Scott, too, achieves a certain pleasing balance with his alternation, in the four sentences of his cogent letter, between “over there” and “here where we are,” “up there” and “back here again,” in fact creating a seesaw motion and thereby tying Stephen more closely to the class than any of the other children.
    Content
    Some of the letters are bland and/or inexpressive, while others are more informative and more colorful, and/or express their writers’ personalities more vividly.
    Probably the blandest letter, in that it includes all the most commonly expressed formulaic sentiments and only the most general “news,” with no departures from convention in content or style that would express an individual personality, is Maureen’s. Although it is undeniably friendly and cheerful, the friendliness and cheerfulness seem somewhat rote: “How are you feeling? I miss you very much. I hope that you will be back in school soon. I like school very much. I had a very nice time in the snow.” Her handwriting is round and slants consistently to the right with one notable exception: the word I , which is vertical. It may not be going too far to suggest that these markedly contrasting I ’s express a sublimated rebelliousness, a suppressed desire to be less conformist and obedient than she evidently is.
    Another fairly bland letter, in a small, round script, is Mary’s, although she is slightly more emphatic than Maureen—“We all miss you very much”—and adds one specific: “I have had lots of fun playing with my sled in the snow.”
    The content can be generally summarized as falling under the following headings, within the two more general categories of expressions of sympathy and “news”:
    Formulaic Expressions of Sympathy
    come back soon/wish you were here (17 occurrences in 27 letters)
    how are you/hope you are feeling better (16)
    miss you (9)
    experience in hospital/food (4)
    empathy: I know how it feels (2)
    News
    playing in snow (9)
    Christmas/Christmas presents (7)
    school/schoolwork (4)
    eating/food (4)
    weather (3)
    shopping with parent (2)
    movies (2) pets (1)
    New Year’s Eve (1)
    Stephen’s family (1)
    party (1)
    Formulaic Expressions of Sympathy
Miss You
    Many of the children’s letters include the standard “We [or I] miss you” or “We [or I] miss you very much,” often paired with “We [orI] hope you will be back soon.”
    Van opens with those two sentiments and then finds himself at a loss: in thin, tremulous handwriting, with so little space between the words that they almost touch, he closes with “I think that is all to say [ sic ] because I just can’t think.” Some of Van’s letters sit nicely on the line, some float up above it, and some sink below it. It is possible, in his case—as in others in which the child betrays some anxiety—that the letters do not sit on the line because the child is overcompensating: for fear of letting his letters sink below the line, he keeps them up off the line; for fear of letting them float up off the line, he forces them down below it. We must remember, when imagining these children learning to write neat script, that a line is