The Tupelo journal., 1906-05-11

WIN oOHs OoS<
owe the same book. AS they reached
the last page Susan looked at Penelope
and sighed.
There" she said, that is ended.
We shall pecite tomorrow to dear Miss
M, n then next week will see US
in Miss BIS classroom, and good
by to good times for six months. Every
girl who has ever been with Miss b.
fairly hates her, unless she happens to
be n OF her pets. She has pets,
and they may do anything, but the
rest of the class are always getting de-
merits and being scolded and made to
do extra work. | wish | could be Rip
Van Wrinkle and sleep straight through
the next grade. Miss w, who has
the class higher than Miss B., is n
darling. But n can't reach her with
out having to undergo the misery OF
the class below"
aren't you exaggerating?" asked
Penelope. Il have seen Miss B. a num-
Der of times, and she looks HARM
less. | cannot understand why h Is
so unpopular. The teachers appear 10
find her pleasant"
ooh, she is pleasant enough with
them and with visiting parents" eX-
claimed Sue. 1T is only her W
girls to whom she is a tyrant. You
have not lived here very long, but /
have gone through this school, from
the kindergarten up, and so have my
sisters. Lucy and Mildred and their
friends nave the same opinion that
have. Everybody breads Miss B."
Penelope's dark eyes grew thought
full. We'll, Sue" she said, my IA
Their has always taught me to value
fair play, and it does not look to me
like fair play to begin in a new class
with ones mind made up that she is
going to dislike the teacher. That ere
ateS a false situation at the outset. Why
should we blindly accept what other
people say without waiting to see for
ourselves where the truth of the mat
ter lies? Poor Miss B. has a hard
road to travel, if the girls do not trust
her before they have given her the
slightest trial. l, for one, shall do my
work in the best way | can, and i
shall try to love Miss B. and to make
hire love me-"
Susan gave her head a toss. Il pre-
dict, Penelope, that you will be a IA
yorite," she said, scornfully.
mot at all, but l have a conscience,
and l am going to give my teacher the
bensfit of a chance. l wish you would
join me. Perhaps if you and / take
the lead, some of the others will fol-
low, and Miss B. for once may have
the pleasure of teaching a class who
are not determined to misunderstood
her intentions and who are not doing
what they can to make ner work hari.
/ believe in making my teachers end
easy, if | can. Mother was a teacher
before her marriage, and she has told
me a good deal about the seamy side
of a teachers life"
Penelope had in her girlish wisdom
tangled itself and led far back into
the years during which the unpopular
teacher had occupied her chair. Miss
B. was exceptionally we'll equipped.
a student painstaking and profound,
the graduate of one college and the
successful ~prize-winner in post-gradu-
ate work in another, she lacked the
magnetism which in itself makes some
women adorable and adored. In truth,
she was more and more afraid of the
girls she taught; her native diffidence
and shyness made her seem stiff and
stern; she encrusted herself as diff
dent people often do in a c~hain-armor
of reserve. She recoiled from the
unspoken criticism of the girls who
sat before her, and though she hon
estly tried she was seldom able to
make them feel that she cared for
them personally. They supposed that
in her view they were so many pegs
in a row or pawns on a chessboari,
and they resented the i~mpersonality
of her near-sighted gaze. Girls are
sometimes very heartless, and instead
of feeling pitiful when occasionally
they saw a culver of pain cross Miss
BIS c~ouRtenance, such a token of SEN
%sitiveness on her part only made them
dislike her the more. In her endeavor
to be just and to exact the best work
of which the class was capable, she
often went toe far and marked too Sc
verely any failure. If right relations
are not existent between teacher and
rah0IorC ~ ic uQru difHoY,1f fO~ o;+L1-
u accomplish much. Often it would
be for the benefit of all concerned were
the teacher to be transplanted to a
new environment where she could be-
gin unhampered by u%nfriendly tradi-
tons.
Ii a teacher in the depths of her
own soul is aware that she is no dis
ciplinarian, she probably makes eff
forts in the direction where she is
weak, and the result is a continual
conflict between her class and herself.
The resistance may not be open, but
it is always ready to break out like
a s~mouldering fire. Nothing on earth
is harder to vanquish than a preju-
dice, and the less reasonable it be the
more stubborn it probably is in main
tanning it's ground.
/ wish could persuade girls to imi-
tate Penelope and be fair to the un-
popular teacher in whose interest !
am holding a brief. She may not
be happy and at ease in her home
life. In the background there may
be an ailing father or mother whose
welfare is q mattar of deem anxiety