The Handwriting of WPGA 

by Lucas Rucchin ’24

Greetings, visitor! Before you emerge from the newly-constructed exhibition of West Point Grey Academy’s Handwriting Gallery™. Please sanitize your hands to maintain the perfect ivory of these halls. In tandem with the large variety of subjects cultivated at our school, the handwriting that is scribed by WPGA’s educators on assignments, rubrics, and assessments is distinct and expressive. Have a look for yourself. 

Exhibition One: Mr. Bohnen 

As eloquent as his presence, Mr. Bohnen’s handwriting should spur the memory of any student who has ventured into Chemistry or Psychology. Gliding across the glass of his unmistakable tablet, Mr. Bohnen directs his pen in a sub-cursive, producing an unique font that is elegant, efficient, and perfect for Lewis Diagrams or chemical equations or whatever lesson that is at the hands of Mr. Bohnen’s passionate educational prowess. We mustn’t forget Mr. Bohnen’s lovely signature mascot that enchants the class notes—does it have a name? And where does it receive its hair-cuts?

Exhibition Two: Mrs. Manning 

Mrs. Manning makes not only an excellent new addition to WPGA’s faculty of Mathematics and Physics, but also to this gallery, with her ebbing pure-cursive script. Her ardour for her field of teaching is revealed in the grace of her handwriting: the orderly letters, the sailing tails at the beginning of words, the evenly-spaced text, the artful background, and the classic choice of pen. Doubtlessly, Mrs. Manning must have derived the acceleration of the pen and the kinetic-friction coefficient between the paper and the pen to achieve this degree of refinement. Welcome to WPGA, Mrs. Manning. 

Exhibition three: Mr. Elmer 

Don’t worry, Mr. Elmer—your boundless knowledge of jazz, improvisation, concert band, music theory, instrument technicality, and unmatched life philosophy has no space for cursive! The all-capital approach is timeless, and surprisingly difficult to execute at this level of readability and control. The transition-lines between letters are subdued and non-impeding to the reading experience, and demonstrate a learned adeptness of the all-caps art. In fact, Mr. Elmer’s style of scribing fully mirrors the spirited font that is printed on jazz charts: a testament to his experience. Certainly, music is good for your head. 

Exhibition four: Mr. Peterson 

Truly, Mr. Peterson, your handwriting in its natural habitat is a reality-defying, agile, and wondrous sight. It was once thought impossible to transfer the elegance of italic font into the handwriting of humans, yet here we stand, gazing upon the work of a hand that has captured the graceful rapidness of the slanted alphabet while being imbued with irreplaceable, unconstrained scientific passion. Observe the subtleties of adeptness: the stems of the t’s and f’s are perfectly parallel; the o’s that flow and tangle discreetly with the subsequent letters; the concise, consistent lettering. When Mr. Peterson’s students study his class notes, they are met not only with the detailed intricacies of chemistry, but additionally with rows upon rows of streaming pen-blue rivers of his effortless script. 

Exhibition five: Mr. McCullough 

A font stirred by cohesiveness, Mr. McCullough’s handwriting fully equals the sophistication of the WPGA Handwriting Gallery™ with a script that compliments his profound, organized teaching. The round framework of his lettering bespeaks his easy approachability, and each letter respects its space, neither intruding upon or shrinking behind others. The polish and consistency of the g tails, the poise of the capitals… It appears as if Mr. McCullough’s font has been extracted straight from a digital typeface.