Journal #1 - Chapters 1~3 - Perspective: Ms. Caroline

I never knew that 1^st graders could be so annoying and misbehaved! After teaching here for only two day, I have already come to the conclusion that I can’t take Maycomb anymore, especially the kids. Just yesterday alone I already get this girl Scout, who has been ruining my new type of teaching plan. So what happened… oh I’ll tell you what happened. This girl, Scout, comes into the classroom already knowing how to read! Just to test her out a little bit, I decided to give her the book My first Reader, and then the Mobile Register and she was able to read both of them. I wasn’t exactly sure what expression I was portraying when she finished but I knew for one thing it was not pretty. That father of hers is going to have to stop teaching her to read.

 

After a very long morning, lunch time finally came. I noticed that one of the boys, Walter Cunningham, didn’t bring a lunch so I offered him a quarter to buy some, but her refused, which surprised me. He just said meekly, “Nome thank you ma’am.” I was insisting that he take the quarter but he still refused. All of a sudden Scout comes rambling off about how Walter is a Cunningham. While I’m just thinking what that could possibly mean I realized that because this town is so small it seems that everyone seems to know everyone….except me! Just from Scouts little speech about Walter, I learned that the Cunninghams are a very poor family who lives there lives simply on a farm. Right off the bat I could tell that Walter was poor because of his appearance. He came in on the first day of school with some beat up overalls and very dirty. Also they never take what they can’t give back.

 

Sometimes I get very frustrated but not ever like this. First I have a girl who has already destroyed my new teaching plan, which I have been yearning to use since college! I have only been here for a short amount of time and I can tell I’ve become an outsider. The way I dress, talk and teach! Everything has been eating at me and I’m not sure how long I am going to be able to stay here. I practically broke down and started crying in my lap today….here’s the story:

 

It was just after class was going to be continued when a student name Little Chuck Little, or Burris Ewell comes into class and still has this living creating in his hair! I thought I had nearly passed out at that moment. The creature was small but still it was living inside his head! All the boys, except Burris obviously, rush to my assistance as I started in horror at the insect-like creature that didn’t seem to bug Burris the slightest bit. After I drank a refreshing glass of water, I wrote down Burris’ full name on the attendance sheet and then continued class. But before I did that I demanded Burris to go home and wash his hair thoroughly and then treat it with kerosene. The process certainly seemed reasonable to me with the way that thing creped around. Soon later Burris just pinched the creature with his bare hands and killed it within two seconds. I know my face was terrified but not enough to the point where the kids of the class were scared not by the bug but because of my facial expression.

 

After that I decided to read a nice story to the students to take my mind off of the chaos that had already ruined my first day. I seemed to gather more information about the Ewell family after the incident. Basically the Ewells are a crazy huge family with no mother who only attend school for the first day, and then go help their father on the farm the rest of the year. I wanted to feel bad for them but then decided that it wasn’t worth it. I just wanted to go back to Alabama.