Not always gladly does she teach, nor gladly learn: Teachers inKünstlerinroman for young readers

Childrens Literature in Education, Vol. 20, No. 3, .~989

M. Sarah Smedman teaches children's literature and other literature courses at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is the author of many articles and reviews in children's literature and is the recipient of the Children's Literature Association's Scholarship Award.

M. Sarah Smedman

Not Always Gladly Does She Teach, nor Gladly Learn: Teachers in K i i n s t l e r i n r o m a n for Young Readers

Louis D. Rubin, Jr., An Apple for My Teacher, p. xiii

In his int roduct ion to An Apple for My Teacher: Twelve Authors Tell About Teachers Who Made the Difference, Louis D. Rubin points out that just as good teachers of future writers "live on so admir- ably and lastingly in the books of their one time pupils," so also do those "teachers w h o failed to measure up, w h o through their example taught arrogance, cruelty, h idebound thinking, and even fatu- ousness, find their memorial in what their students reproduce in their writings." Many novels for young readers include indelibly l imned teachers, strong and weak, exercising the voice of pedagogi- cal authority, sometimes wisely, sometimes foolishly. Far outweigh- ing their propor t ionate length in the novels is the po tency of those scenes in which teachers figure, particularly those teachers w h o "do not measure u p " - - t h o s e egocentric, dour disciplinarians, im- pervious to the human sensibilities of their pupils. That these disturbing scenes of classroom drama etch themselves in readers ' memories as enduringly as they do in the minds of their fictional students undoubted ly derives not only from the fact that readers recognize from their own personal experience the teachers they meet in fiction, but also from the fact that the writers themselves have suffered under classroom tyrants as painfully as do their fictional protagonists.

However, not all fictional teachers live on in ignominy. Some 1ire on in glory. Those in young adult novels of the last twenty years

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132 Children's Literature in Educat ion

Charlotte Bront~, Jane Eyre, pp. 25, 54

Jane Eyre, p. 65

Amos Bronson Alcott, Orphic Sayings (1840; reprinted, 1939), p. 31

can trace their lineage f rom two t eache r smone good, one bad and u g l y m o f Lowood Inst i tut ion, Jane Eyre's school in Charlot te Bront~'s 1847 novel: Miss Temple and Mr. Brocklehurst . Brontfi's depict ion of Lowood is based upon her exper ience at the Clergy Daughters ' School at Cowan Bridge, f rom which she and Emily were wi thdrawn only after their two older sisters, Maria and Eliza- beth, died of a typhus epidemic there. Technically, Mr. Brocklehurst is manager of, rather than teacher at, Lowood, visiting the school to declaim his phi losophy in word and to belie it by deed. Yet it is the principles of this "straight, narrow, sable clad," " r ig id" piece of architecture" wi th a "gr im face at the t o p . . , like a carved mask, placed above the shaft by way of capital" whose person and principles control Lowood. Mr. Brocklehurst 's fundamental pr inciple is that poo r girls must be taught to k n o w their place, to be rendered "hardy, patient, and self-denying" through deprivation, corporal punishment , and public humiliat ion (p. 55). Students ' needs for physical, emotional , and spiritual sustenance are denied. There are, of course, teachers at Lowood cast in Mr. Brocklehurst 's mold; Miss Temple, however, is his antithesis. An advocate o f truth, justice, and compassion, she treats the girls kindly and ensures that each has a fair chance to achieve on her o w n merits and be accepted for herself. Moreover, as a teacher Miss Temple is inspiring, kindling ideas and reflection in her students. Jane describes Miss Temple as having

always something of serenity in her air, of state in her mien, of refined propriety in her language, which precluded deviation into the ardent, the excited, the eager: something which chastened the pleasure of those who looked on her, and listened to her, by a con- trolling sense of awe.

While Miss Temple is a "cont inual solace" to her students (p. 76), she epitomizes Bronson Alcott 's defini t ion of the true teacher as one w h o "defends [her] pupils against [her] o w n personal influence," guiding " the i r eyes f rom [herself] to the spirit that quickens [her]. [She] will have no disciple." When after eight years Miss Temple leaves Lowood, Jane Eyre keenly, but temporarily, misses the stability and tranquili ty wi th which her teacher invested life and soon quickens to the realization that the wor ld offers vast oppor tun i ty and exper ience to those w h o have " the courage to go for th into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its per i ls" (p. 77).

With one except ion the students o f the teachers to be discussed here are incipient artists, hypersensitive, bright, highly imaginative girls, aspiring toward careers as writers or painters. Although some of them are arrogant and spunky, outwardly self-sufficient and hard, they are all, like Jane Eyre, lonely, insecure, longing for love and for affirmation. As they struggle to take control of their lives, to

Not Always Does She Gladly Teach i33

Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, Modern Library ed., pp. 85-86

sort through conflicting values thrust upon them by their parents, peers, and the situations of their iives, they are also trying to understand what it means, personally and socially, to be an artist and to come to terms with their gifts and themselves as gifted. Naturally, these talented young women look to teachers both as models and as knowledgeable professionals who can be expected to discern their students' creative impulses and to acknowledge those students and their work as worthwhile, deserving of recognition and respect.

Despite the vigor of their portraiture and the strength of their influence, teachers in these Kiinstlerinroman are often minor characters appearing only briefly in their stories. In some novels, however, the character of the teacher pervades the entire story, affecting plot structure as well as the protagonist. Here I want to look first at the fictional teachers who are spotlighted briefly but memorably, including those from two classics which bridge the years between Jane Eyre and the last two decades, namety Amy March's teacher in Little Women and Anne Shirley's teachers in Anne of Green Gables.

Vitriolic vignettes in Alcott's Little Women, Nicholasa Mohr's Nilda, and Mollie Hunter's Sound of Chariots reinforce the stereo- type of the spiritually desiccated, niggardly teacher, usually an ill- tempered old maid bent upon establishing her position by punish- ing pupils who display any aptitude or merely a natural inclination which she is too narrow or too righteous to comprehend. In the well-known episode from Little Women, Alcott puckishly turns the tables, making the "old maid" a man. Amy's teacher, Mr. Davis, is characterized as a "nervous" gentleman with a "tyrannical temper" and no talent for teaching. However, he does know "any quantity of Greek, Latin, Algebra, and ologies of all sorts, so he was called a fine teacher; and manners, morals, feelings and examples were not considered of any particular importance." Neither astute nor courageous enough to suspend his own rules (as Miss Temple does Brocklehurst's) and entirely imperceptive of the envy of Amy's artistic achievement which motivated Jenny to tattle on her, of Amy's aching desire to take her turn in treating classmates to pickled limes, and of Amy's profound shame, Mr. Davis forces the proud, sensitive child to throw her dozen dearly purchased, contra- band limes out the window, two at a time, and then strikes her palms "several tingling blows" (p. 87). Because the poor street urchins revel in the unexpected delicacy, because Amy is indeed priggish, and because Marmee overtly preaches that a little humilia- tion may mitigate the conceit and self-importance endangering Amy's genius, Mr. Davis's cruelty is softened somewhat and rendered more ridiculous and pitiable than Mr. Brocklehurst's. None- theless, Amy is permitted to withdraw from school rather than continue to be subjected to "a manner of teaching" censured by

134 Children's Li terature in Educa t ion

Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne o f Green Gables, Bantam ed., p. 111

her parents, and despite Alcott 's disclaimer, Amy's exper ience is nei ther " lud ic rous" nor " t r iv ia l" to empathet ic readers, w h o suffer wi th the girl an unforgettable " shame and pain" (p. 88).

During her impressionable years at Avonlea school, Anne of Green Gables has two teachers, like Jane Eyre's foils for each other: the silly Mr. Phillips and the sensible Miss Stacy. Perhaps too inane and ineffectual to be a genuine descendant of Mr. Brocklehurst , Mr. Phillips holds the posi t ion of schoolmaster as a sinecure. Infatuated wi th one of his older pupils, he squanders his at tent ion on her, leaving the other scholars to do "p re t t y much as they pleased, eating green apples, whispering, drawing pictures on their slates, and driving crickets harnessed to strings up and d o w n the aisle." Too enervated to be consistent yet conce rned wi th upholding his word, Mr. Phillips is hasty, biased, and insensitive in his spasmodic efforts to discipline. Twice Anne is Singled out for a punishment not warranted by her offense while the boys involved escape the teacher's notice. After Anne has broken her slate on Gilbert Blythe's head, she burns with fury and shame while the schoolmaster not only decries her temper but misspells her name. Nevertheless, she stands her ground wi th dignity. However, after she - - the only one among a dozen tardy boys to be chast ised--has to sit wi th Gilbert, she refuses to re turn to school. Recognizing Anne's inflexible resolution, Marilla Cuthbert , like Amy March's parents, does not force the child to go back until she herself decides to do so. From Marilla's fr iend Rachel Lynde, a severe but hones t critic, the reader gets an impartial account: "Mr. Phillips was in the wrong." He "isn ' t any good at all as a teacher. The order he keeps is scandalous, that 's what . . . . I don ' t know what educat ion in this island is coming to" (p. 118). Anne, of course, is never apprised of Rachel Lynde's dictum. When she does rejoin her class, her steely determi- nat ion to learn ensures rapid progress regardless of the teacher.

Mr. Phillips is succeeded by Miss Muriel Stacy, the first " female teacher in Avonlea," and Anne finds a kindred spirit (p. 182). A "bright , sympathet ic young w o m an wi th the happy gift of winning and holding the affections of her pupils and bringing out the best that was in them mentally and morally," Miss Stacy initiates field excursions to s tudy nature and physical exercise to "p ro m o te diges- t ion" and grace (pp. 190-192). She teaches the significance of con- cision, clarity, and restraint in writing. She endears herself to Anne, whose ardor, unlike Jane Eyre's, is impossible to curb, by clarifying the mysteries of geomet ry and by valuing inquisitiveness and imagi- nat ion every bit as much as factual information. Miss Stacy's penal- ties match the infractions which incur them and reflect her knowledge of and trust in her students. Because Miss Stacy recognizes Anne's brilliance, she invites the Cuthberts to send her to the special

Not Always Does She Gladly Teach 135

Nicholasa Mohr, Nilda

Nilda, p. 49

classes preparatory for the teachers ' college entrance exams. "Anne expand[s] like a f lower under this who lesome inf luence" (,p. 190) and rewards the faith in her wi th superior achievement. When Anne herself becomes a teacher, her educational phi losophy and idea l - - to teach by gentleness toward, trust in, respect for, and ex- pectat ion of the best f rom her pupi ls- - is clearly inspired, and also tempered to reality, by the influence of her beloved Miss Stacy.

By the middle of the twent ie th century female teachers in both e lementary and secondary schools have become the rule rather than the exception. In the Kiinstlerinroman of the 1970s and 1980s to be discussed here, the significant teachers, w-ith one except ion, are women. Those w h o are dedicated, effectual teachers f requent ly funct ion as more, for example, as role models, friends, even surrogate parents. Those w h o "fail to measure u p " are still p rone to bolster specious author i ty by name-calling and corporal punishment .

Nicholasa Mohr's Nilda is a Puerto Rican girl growing up in a New York City barrio, where women, particularly, are vict imized by pov- erty, p o o r education, and chauvinism. Episodic in structure, the novel is integrated primari ly by the bond be tween Nilda and her indomitable mothe r and by the girl's discovery of her artistic talent. Symbolically, Nilda's creative impulse finds expression in gardens: those she delights in and those she paints. School plays no part in developing Nilda's gift. Rather, the child's art is her refuge from Miss Langhorn's classroom as well as from other misfortunes that life deals her.

Miss Langhorn's sallow, shriveled body is as appropriate a figure for her self-centered bigotry as the narrow, rigid black co lumn is of Mr. Brocklehurst 's . Miss Langhorn's classroom, too, is shaped accord- ing to rules designed to degrade her students. Her basic premise is that poor, foreign children are stupid and debased and need to have that knowledge driven into them. Her strictest rule is that no word of Spanish be spoken in the classroom. Children w h o infringe that rule meet a fate similar to Amy March's. They must extend both arms, fists c lenched with knuckles up for beating. A rule reminis- cent of the near-starvation at Lowood is that no child able to afford mild and chocola te-covered graham crackers is al lowed during milk break to share with those w h o have no money:

As she did almost every morning, Nilda just sat and stared with the other children who weren't eating. The}, all waited for the milk break to be over.

While Nilda waits during the t ime that seems longer every day, she

136 Children's Literature in Education

Mollie Hunter, A Sound of Chariots, p. 55

imagines not only the day w h e n she can buy a nickcl's wor th of cookies but a time when, g rownup and possessed of a whole box, she will deny one to Miss Langhorn, smiling poli tely but chewing loudly all the while (p. 49).

Miss Langhorn's dominant teaching m e th o d is the denigrat ion of her pupils ' parents for speaking "Yapity Yap Yap" rather than Eng- lish; "You will never amount to anything wor thwhi le unless you learn English. You'll stay iust like your parents. Is that what you peop le want? Eh?" (p. 46). She reinforces her point wi th endless, irrelevant recollections of her o w n happy ch i ldhood in a t ime w h en children could look up to their parents in a stable family, w h e n the father graced the head of the table. The subject matter of her personal reminiscences as a panacea for what she considers social evils is Miss Langhorn's version of getting back to the basics.

Like Mr. Brocklehurst 's , Miss Langhorn's objective is " to mor t i fy in her students the wordly sent iment of pride," to clothe them "wi th shamefacedness and sobr ie ty" (lane Eyre, pp. 42, 49). Rather than save the talented Nilda f rom the repressive strictures of a prejudiced society, Miss Langhorn attempts to bully the child into seeing herself as the teacher sees her. Langhorn's cruel ty derives from so ignorant a sanct imony as to be unwitting, therefore less hypocri t i - cal than Brocklehurst 's . Complete ly devoid of feeling for any human being other than herself, she is a travesty of a teacher. Perhaps it is because Nilda cultivates the art of daydreaming to escape Miss Langhorn that the girl learns to lose herself in a "w o r ld of magic achieved f rom some forms, lines, and co lors" (p. 44).

Bridie McShane's teachers in Mollie Hunter 's Sound of Chariots are more directly involved wi th actual pedagogy than many fictional teachers. Since Bridie is interested in writing, her dramatic encoun- ters are wi th teachers of language and literature. Miss Dunstan, one of Bridie's e lementary teachers, like other descendants of Mr. Brocklehurst , lacks the imagination to recognize in her pupil the promise o f a poet. Even at nine years old, Bridie labors over her essays, " lovingly choosing and picking among her pirate's treasures of words for the ones that had the right sound and color about them, carefully fitting them together like a mosaic." Like most children, feeling personal ly violated each t ime Miss Dunstan red- pencils her dict ion and syntax, Bridie erupts in fury when her teacher changes the phrase 'And waves like green broken glass fell jaggedly d o w n " to read "waves like broken green glass," wording Bridie considers pedestr ian. Deeming her author i ty chal lenged by a pupil 's a t tempt to explain that rearranging the words has broken the picture, Miss Dunstan lashes Bridie both wi th a belt and wi th the epi thet "li t t le Irish bog- t rot ter" (p. 56).

Not Always Does She Gladly Teach 13 7

A Sound of Chariots, p. 217

As is often the case in children's fiction, the spiteful teacher threat- ened by the least object ion to her totalitarian regime is balanced by the intervent ion of a wiser mentor. When Mrs. Mackie, the headmistress, overhears Bridie's cries o f pain, she investigates. Heart- ened by Mrs. Mackie's presence, Bridle can bet ter articulate her sense that Miss Dunstan's scorings have des t royed " the sort o f magic" in her essay, but she also suddenly realizes her o w n vulnerability, " h o w much she needed adult reassurance that she was right." Although Mrs. Mackie insists that Bridle make the prescr ibed changes, she tells the child that she "may have glimpsed the shadow of the edge of the meaning of poetry." As for herself, Mrs. Mackie will look forward the fol lowing year to receiving essays having " ' a sort of magic ' in t h e m " (19. 58). Bridle begins to understand that al though Mrs. Mackie stands behind Miss Dunstan's authority, the headmistress is actually on her side.

In these two teachers, Hunter, consciously or unconsciously, reinforces the s tereotype of the spiritually impover ished old-maid school teacher by depicting Dunstan as a garishly adorned, sarcastic spinster wi th thin lips and Mackie as a soft-spoken, self-possessed marr ied woman. The reader cannot help but w o n d e r to what degree, in Hold on to Love, the sequel to Sound of Chariots, Bridie's decision to marry at sixteen rather than to pursue educat ion and a career has been inf luenced by the images of Dunstan and Mackie engraved upon her memory.

More fortunate in high school, Bridle meets her Miss Temple in Dr. Mclntyre, a literature teacher wi th "a delight as keen as her o w n in the everlastingly beautiful complex structure o f language" Shocked at the realization that her classmates ridicule their teacher 's rapt reading of poetry, Bridle is embo ldened to show him some of her own work. Dr. McIntyre helps her to unders tand that, not only has her father's death unleashed in her an acute awareness of the pre- ciousness of each momen t of life, but that she is one of "a few gifted wi th the power for expression of that awareness," f rom which she must build "consciously, creatively ou twards" (pp. 221, 238). Calling Bridle a "poet - in-embryo," Dr. Mclntyre chants "h e r name softly over and over again, like an incantat ion" (p. 219). His naming of Bridle is a kind of ritualistic calling her for th to and priest ly conf i rmat ion of her sacred vocation. Although at the mo- ment Bridle cannot fully grasp what he is saying, his words will forever remain her bulwark.

Mrs. Mackie and Dr. McIntyre are fitting forerunners for the next (and here, last) miniature of a teacher: Miss Harris in Katherine Paterson's Great Gilly Hopkins. Miss Harris, somewhat larger than life, is the epi tome of what a teacher ought to be, surely the ideal of


Katherine Paterson, The Great Gilly Hopkins, pp. 44-45

every pract icing professional: she is brilliant, sensitive, patient, has a saving sense of humor, and is fair. She eludes the sys tem of classifi- ca t ion that the sagacious Gilly, a foster child abandoned by her "s ix t ies" mother , has devised to mainta in contro l over "under - standing adul ts" in a sys tem which has forced her to erect defenses against unbearable hurt . Behind her class w h e n she enters Miss Harris 's sixth grade, Gilly plans

to work madly until she had not only caught up with but passed them all, and then she'd skid to a total halt. That kind of technique drove teachers wild. They took it personally when someone who could obviously run circles around the rest of the class completely refused to play the game.

Different f rom other teachers, however, Miss Harris will not be drawn into Gilly's game: "She did not appear to be dependen t upon her students. There was no evidence that they fed e i ther her anxie- ties or her sat isfact ions" (p. 54). Gilly cannot figure out h o w to manipula te this "f lawless t a m p e r p r o o f mach ine" wi th "all her work ings shinily encased and h idden f rom v i e w " (19.55). That Miss Harris treats her like everyone else disconcer ts and, therefore, in- furiates the girl. "Teachers had cour ted her and cursed her, but no one before had s imply mel ted her into the mass" (p. 55). Although Miss Harris curries no favor nor disciples, she, a successful black w o m a n in a d iscr iminatory society, unders tands Gilly's defiance and need to be not iced, and she can consider the source of the girl 's nasty racism.

On their first meet ing, Miss Harris symbol ical ly offers Gilly the gift o f her t rue name: "Galadr ie l Hopkins . What a beautiful n a m e ! . . . the name of a great queen in a b o o k by a man n a m e d Tolkien. But, o f course, you k n o w tha t " (i 9 . 21). Never having heard the deriva- t ion of her name, Gilly cannot decide w h e t h e r to p re tend she knows all about it or to play dumb. She does refuse Miss Harris ' request to call her Galadriel despite the fact that she has futilely asked bo th her social w o r k e r and foster m o t h e r to call her by her true name. When, after a few weeks, Gilly has m o v e d to her grand- mothe r ' s , Miss Harris sends her Tolkien's books , writ ing, " I certainly w o n ' t forget you even if you never write, but it wou ld be good to hear h o w you are gett ing a long" (p. 137). In her thank-you, Gilly admits her ers twhile ignorance: " N o w I k n o w w h o Galadriel was." The postscr ipt , " I t ' s OK if you want to call me Galadriel," is Gilly's admiss ion that Miss Harris has seen th rough her hard shell to the Galadriel capable of t ruth as well as fantasy, o f generos i ty as well as self-centeredness, of t rust as well as suspicion.

Obviously, the credit for Gilly's growth, her will ingness at last to expose her vulnerabi l i ty by expressing her love, belongs mos t o f all


Irene Hunt, up a Road Slowly

to her foster mothe r Maime Trotter. However, that Miss Harris is the only character w h o calls Galadriel by her given name, knowing its significance, points up the teacher 's role in Gilly's t ransformation f rom a defensive, pugnacious rebel to a princess in the truest sense of the word, one w h o can open herself to receiving, then giving love, accepting the fact that al though loving is a " tough job," there is "Nothing to make you happy like doing good on a tough job" (p. 148). Miss Harris has indeed had a " tough job" in Galadriel Hopkins, but wi th pat ience and a wisdom untainted by sentimental- ity, she has refused to give up the at tempt to break through the spell of personal selfishness and insti tutional impersonal i ty which have locked the princess inside a distorted form.

Before consider ing in more detail two extraordinary novels in which a teacher is a haunting, as well as a major, character, let us look at three others in which a teacher figures th roughout the story also as a surrogate parent. Four of these next five teachers, like Miss Temple, are archetypal wise mentors; the fifth, a bitter antagonist. All five are knowledgeable teachers capable o f imparting their subject matter wi th an enthusiasm that sparks creative responses f rom their students. Four of the five treat students as whole persons, not merely as brains or bodies to be trained. The influence of each, if not responsible for, certainly contr ibutes toward the protagonist 's assumption of a greater degree of control over her o w n life. Finally, because the characters of all five pervade an entire story, they are rounder characters, wi th personal lives of their own beyond the classroom and their students.

The most comfortable of the three books in which the teacher is also parent is Irene Hunt 's Up a Road Slowly, which, like Little Women, is in the tradit ion of the domest ic novel, though the later book has echoes and allusions that presage the problem novel com- m o n a decade later. Aunt Cordelia is a middle-aged spinster teacher in a one - room coun t ry school at a t ime w h e n that insti tution is on the verge of extinction. She has rel inquished marriage to care most of her life for her aged mothe r and two spinster aunts, now- de- ceased, and to keep an eye on her profligate, pretend-to-be wri ter brother, Uncle Haskell. When after their mother ' s death seven-year- old Julie Trelling and her brother Chris come to live with Aunt Cordelia, the girl inwardly rebels but for the most part outwardly conforms to a home life as formal and rigidly s t ructured as school, where boys are favored above girls, w h o must always be decorous. Although Aunt Cordelia is traditional and stern, she is fair. After she punishes Julie for hoyden ism in punching out a boy w h o kisses her against her will, Aunt Cordelia realizes and apologizes for her error. During Julie's early years, Aunt Cordelia's undemonstra t iveness is compensa ted for by the affect ion of Chris and of her father and

140 Children's Literature in Education

older sister, w h o still live at home. When her father, a college professor, remarries a high school English teacher and invites Julie back to live wi th them, Julie realizes that her real h o m e is wi th Aunt Cordelia. Cordelia is as strong and basically kind a teacher as a disciplinarian and fosters in Julie a love of language and literature that provides a basis for her subsequent writing. The return o f Aunt Cordelia's now-widowed ex-beau rekindles in her the spark of ro- mantic love, which enables the teen-aged Julie bet ter to unders tand the depth of her aunt 's warmth and caring.

The novel ends on the night of Julie's commencemen t , at which she delivers the valedictory. After graduation Julie plans to fol low Aunt Cordelia's advice to go to college away f rom her boyfr iend, realiz- ing that similar as the two actually are, Cordelia is afraid Julie will unwisely circumscribe her future. After Julie has delivered her speech, Cordelia's "I am quite p r o u d " in a voice "coo l ly p roper and matter of fact" means more to Julie than the combined effu- siveness of the rest of her family (p. 192). It is Julie's father w h o sums up Cordelia's place in his daughter 's life: "I haven' t been wi th you w h e n the crises came up. It's been Cordelia w h o has s tood by you in those t imes" (pp. 188-189).

Up a Road Slowly is an old-fashioned book, traditional and ,certainly predictable in its teacher-character, w h o is well- intentioned, self-sacrificing, and compassionate beneath a curt and inflexible exterior, expect ing the best not only f rom Julie but f rom all her pupils in and out of the classroom. That I f ind Cordelia so appeal- ing may derive as much f rom the fact that she gives me back an actual image of an aunt of mine as f rom her good qualities depicted in a prose as understated as Cordelia herself.

Marilyn Sachs, A Summer's Lease, pp. i1, I5

In Marilyn Sachs's Summer's Lease, Mrs. Home, Gloria Rein's sophomore English teacher and adviser of the school 's literary magazine Wings, assumes the role also of mother- f r iend w h e n she invites Gloria to spend the summer in the Catskills helping to care for her two sons and five o ther children, all under twelve. Just before Mrs. H o m e extends the invitation, she names Gloria and a classmate, Jerry Lieberman, coedi tors of Wings. Gloria's delight in the appoin tment and the invitation is marred by Jerry 's inclusion in both. A good short story wri ter and smart enough to distinguish other good writers f rom the lighter weights among her classmates, Gloria dislikes Jerry because "Talent always makes [her] nauseous" and because she resents having to share the "smile of recogni t ion on [Mrs. Home's] l ips" wi th anyone, especially Jerry, w h o shines as an athlete, a debater, and a student leader as well as the school 's poe t laureate. However, to escape for the summer two quarrelsome

Not Always Does She Gladly Teach I41

Zibby Oneal, The Language of Goldfish

brothers and a nagging single mother, w h o wants her to s tudy typ- ing and shor thand, Gloria accepts Mrs. Home ' s invitation.

Mrs. Horne explicitly tells Gloria that, while she admires the girl's talent, she knows too that an edi tor must work well wi th others, an ability Gloria sorely lacks. At the H o m es ' mountain h o m e Gloria vies wi th Jerry for leadership and affect ion from the children and even resents the weekend visits of Professor Home, visits exuber- antly enjoyed by everyone else, especially his wife. As Jerry quietly but cont inuously refuses to be drawn into compet i t ion, as t ragedy strikes, and as Mrs. H o m e becomes fr iend and confidant , Gloria gradually grows in self-assurance and loses her defensiveness. Be- fore the summer is over she can admit that Jerry, like herself, is bo th sensitive and strong, and she can cry for him "because he was my friend and he was suffer ing" (p. 115).

Realistically, Gloria's t ransformation is nei ther sudden nor complete. During the ensuing school year, Jerry publishes poems remi- niscent of the summer, " o f chi ldren and laughter and big skies wi th bright stars," many of them dealing wi th death (p. 117). Gloria can write of the summer only in her diary. The fr iendship be tween the coeditors fades as the year progresses, and Gloria fights an unresist- ing Jerry for control of Wings. When at the end of that year, Jerry resigns, she understands that his action is motivated by pi ty for her. Still, "a gift is a gift," and Gloria needs " the editorship more right now t h a n . . , anything else in the w o r l d " (p. 123). Grateful to Jerry and to the teacher who had given her " T h e Summer," the only one she'd ever spent "w i th peop le w h o m I cared for and w h o cared for me," Gloria can be kinder to less gifted schoolmates. As she and Mrs. H o m e drift naturally apart, the girl realizes that one day she may have other summers like that in the Catskills, for, because o f Mrs. Home, " T h e beginnings were there, inside me, waiting. I knew one day it was going to happen. But for now, I had my edi torship" (p. 122). The teacher 's plan for awakening her student 's tolerance o f her own and others ' weaknesses and ameliorating her imperious- ness has been a modes t success, which will have long-lasting effects.

Thir teen-year-old Carrie of Zibby Oneal 's Language of Goldfish is a painter wi th spiritual and aesthetic needs different f rom those of her materialist, professional, suburban parents and older sister. When Carrie can no longer cling blindly to the securi ty of child- hood nor move easily into the acceptable social wor ld of adolescence, she goes mad. She attempts to tel! her parents of her distress, but, too busy about redecorating, shopping, and an endless round of cocktail parties, they prescribe iron and p rope r breakfasts and admonish her not to be silly. Carrie's parents are unwilling and


The Language of Goldfish, p. 181

unable to hear a child whose interests diverge so widely from their own. Even after Carrie has tried to kill herself, the mother denies her daughter's mental illness and refuses to talk to Carrie about what she has done and why.

Carrie's ballast is her art teacher, Mrs. Ramsay, who recognizes this student as exceptional, gives her private drawing lessons on Satur- days, and takes her to the Art Institute. Mrs. Ramsay's dusty, faded, and worn home is as cheery and comforting to Carrie as are the shared interests, instruction, and affection of her teacher. After Carrie's illness, Mrs. Ramsay invites her to talk about what hap- pened and understands even what the girl cannot put into words. It is Mrs. Ramsay who promises Carrie that with time and cooperative effort, she will regain her equilibrium, just as she reaffirms her talent, assuring the apprehensive Carrie that her latest paintings are the best she has yet done. Carrie's progression from drawing geo- metrical shapes, clean and precise like the mathematics in which she excels~ through softer, abstract paintings of motion, to people indicates her increasing tranquility with adolescence, ambiguity, and other adults.

When Mrs. Ramsay tells Carrie that she will no longer teach there, that with her small children she will soon move to a neighboring city, Carrie regrets the void her teacher's absence will leave in her life. However, when she hears the gossip that Mrs. Ramsay has lost her job because she is leaving her husband for another man, the girl's precarious balance is menaced by the crumbling of the one facet in her life she had trusted as stable: her personal and professional rapport with her teacher. She is shattered at her dawning comprehension that Mrs. Ramsay had lied to her when she denied having been the woman Carrie had seen in Chicago getting into a cab with a man the girl had mistakenly assumed to be Mr. Ramsay. Why, Carrie wondered, couldn't Mrs. Ramsay have explained to her, have trusted her to understand? "They were friends, weren't they? Hadn't they been?" Just as she had hung on to childish games to ward off growing up, Carrie tries to imagine Mrs. Ramsay doing familiar things to deny her teacher a life apart from her own. "But it didn't work. She couldn't hold the image steady against the trouble- some words, and they swarmed in. The image began to stretch and lose shape" (p. 180). By now, however, Carrie, to the credit of her teacher as much as to the psychiatrist she visits daily, is more at ease with herself, her family, and her friends. She is able to do the mature thing, to tell Mrs. Ramsay that she has never had a better teacher nor a better friend: "'You will always be my friend, Mrs. Ramsay. Nothing could ever change that.' She meant it. The rumor, the thing Mrs. Ramsay had done that she couldn't understand--that mattered, of course. But she loved Mrs. Ramsay, and so she had to make room for it" (p. 184).

Not Always Does She Gladly Teach t43

"Winifred Madison, A Portrait of Myself, pp. 26, 43

After Mrs. Ramsay declares reciprocal feelings for Carrie, Carrie goes home, s t rengthened by a gl immer of comprehens ion that adults are not always exactly what they would like to be either. In a burst of forgiveness Carrie hugs her mo the r for the first t ime in a long while and, then, in an onrush o f childlike vulnerability, goes of f by herself to cry. At the end of the novel, Carrie as able to pass on her ch i ldhood game of calling the goldfish to a neighboring six- year-old and to recognize the pile of rocks in the middle of the goldfish pond both as the kaleidoscopic heaps that slipped and roared in her head w h e n she was sickest and as the island retreat she had painted again and again during her convalescence. The insight which enables Carrie finally to name her island indicates that she is on the path to wholeness, assisted on her way more by a busy, insightful, compassionate teacher-fr iend than by her family.

Catherine d'Amato, the sixteen-year-old protagonist of Winifred Madison's novel A Portrait of Myse~ turns, in quest of herself, away f rom her tawdry mothe r and voluble, gregarious extended Italian family, among w h o m she feels a loser and a loner, to her new gym teacher, Karen Alcott. She is not so fortunate as Carrie. Miss Alcott is everything Catherine is not: tall and lissome, fine-featured, wi th "a long mane of corn-silk hair t ied at the nape of her neck," speaking in the "accents of the rich, the educated, the highly re- f ined." From the first the impression Miss Alcott makes upon Catherine is intense, appearing as a w o m a n "radiating l ight" and strangely familiar to the girl as " the image I had seen all last summer w h e n I stared into the mirror and begged it to change me into someone else" (p. 27). In this disturbing story Madison captures tl'm tender, fragile fantasies of a fulfilling relationship and happy future that a lonely adolescent builds around an attractive, admired teacher and the painful crumbling o f those dreams w h e n the teacher 's cruel ty forces the realization, that despite her physical beauty; she is cold and ungracious, resembling "all those teachers w h o had taught too long" (p. 214).

In the beginning of the school year, Miss Alcott appears to Catherine as "a priestess in a lavender leotard and violet je rsey" (P. 95), a kind of vestal virgin at a shrine of The Arts, w h o will recognize Catherine as one o f the anointed. The teacher, an erst- while dancer wi th Martha Graham, gives c redence to the adage: those w h o can, do; those w h o can't, teach. Although Miss Alcott " acknowledged every other girl in class," she never seems to not ice Catherine at all (p. 85). Catherine's d isappointment at not making the newly fo rmed Gilkie High dance team is t ransformed to ecstasy w h e n Miss Alcott, significantly misnaming her Caroline, asks her to do the posters for a Christmas Dance Concert . Catherine basks in Miss Alcott 's tr ibute m her talent and the knowledge that to do the sketches she will have to be present at the practices. Her infatuation

I 4 4 Chi ldren ' s L i t e r a t u r e in E d u c a t i o n

A Portrait of Myself, p. 97

wi th the teacher and pleasure in the pos ter ass ignment liberate her f rom someth ing dark and brooding that had been reflected in her paintings, wh ich Mr. Everett, her conce rned art teacher, thought black and depressing (p. 75).

"Ela ted" w h e n the posters are successfully finished, yet "s t rangely e m p t y w i t hou t them," Cather ine decides to do a por t fo l io of twen ty sketches and paint ings of the dancers and of Karen Alcott hersel f as a gift for the teacher. Excited by the vitality, the sugges- t iveness of a few lines, and an emerg ing lightness in her work , Cather ine lovingly fashions an elegant por t fo l io of silk ivory mol t6 and na r row satin r ibbons to ho ld the fruits o f her labor o f love. She decides to take the gift to Miss Alcott on a chilly March Saturday, fantasizing that the teacher ' s apprec ia t ion will turn to respect, then into a w a r m relat ionship b e t w e e n the two of t hem that will change Catherine 's life. Her dreams are undaun ted by her classmates ' awareness of Miss Alcott 's lack of feeling; by her mo the r ' s d iscom- fort wi th drawings of dancers leaping around wi thou t any clothes on and a naked teacher washing her h a i r - - e v e n if they are art; and by a school rule forbidding students to visit teachers ' homes. Cather ine is, however, devastated w h e n Miss Alcott, despite remon- strances f rom friends w h o are present , scarcely looks at the por- traits, j amming those her fr iends had taken out back into the por t - folio, s lamming it shut, and r amming it back into Catherine 's arms, hissing "You have no talent . . . . Now take this mess and leave, d ' A m a t o " (p. 175). Her pain not pall iated by awkward apologies f rom the o ther two, Cather ine runs until she collapses, sobbing, on the frozen ground. Once home, she burns her work .

Cather ine keeps f rom her d ivorced mother , w h o works by day and part ies many evenings, the fact that Miss Alcott has had the principal, this t ime not a correct ive for a malicious teacher, pe rmanen t ly expel Cather ine f rom gym classes and suspend her f rom school for a week for violat ing the no-vis i ta t ion-at-homes rule. At the end of that week, at h o m e alone, a desperate Cather ine cuts her wrists in wha t also proves to be a failed a t tempt at suicide. It is then that Catherine 's m o t he r not only convinces her daughter that she loves her but speaks also as a wise mentor :

There's always a place for everyone and you just go on . . . . You don't stop because some nasty teacher, probably a bitter old maid, or that rotten principal says and does things they have no business saying or doing. You've got to fight people like that, not give in to them.

A renewed Catherine, grateful to have been saved f rom dark, cold, lonely death, sees "halos e v e r y w h e r e . . , a round my good mother , a round my dear aunts and uncles, and even around Mr. Everett ,"

Not Always Does Sloe Gladly Teach 145

w h o m she had previously scorned (13. 211). Nonetheless, mocked by Miss Alcott 's searing "You have no talent," Catherine can no longer draw.

During a visit to her grandparents ' farm the fo l lowing June, Catherine discovers the empower ing legacy of talent and courage bequea thed her by many "Cater ina" ancestors in Italy and in America. She realizes, too, that it is natural for daughters to differ f rom their mothers: "This revelation led to stilt o ther insights, such as that I did not exist alone but through the grace of others. If this line of s t rong-footed Italian girls had s topped wi th me, would that have been moral ly wrong? I w o n d e r e d " (p. 227). Circumventing at last the artist's block that had temporar i ly cr ippled her, Catherine sketches first her grandmother ' s hands, then the farm, the country, and the peop le about her. By the end of the novel Catherine be- lieves in her talent as she never before has and plans seriously toward art school and a career.

Despite such flaws as clumsily overt symbol i sm-- fo r example, an omnipresent self-portrait o f Catherine at six, reminding her of a t ime w h e n she was secure and happy, and scarred wrists indicative of a bat tered soul; as stagey foreshadowing-- l ike the successful suicide of an equally sensitive and artistic classmate; and as the hackneyed handling of a mother-daughter conflict, A Portrait o f Myself resonates, first, wi th the authent ic i ty of a young girl's ro- manticizing of a beloved teacher, and, second, wi th the devastating, real ruthlessness of that ideal. Although several de ta i l s - - for example, Karen Alcott 's love for a bad painting because she loved Frances, the pa in te r ; her l iving wi th a n o t h e r w o m a n ; and Catherine's painting her in the n u d e - - c a n be interpreted as sugges- tive of lesbianism, the novel can more validly be read as a young girl's nebulous, ethereal, intense but nonsexual love for an older w o m a n she admires, an occur rence as common , as delicate, and of ten as ult imately heartbreaking for adolescent girls as p u p p y love. Although Karen Alcott does everything to deny and discourage her student 's talent, ult imately her viciousness occasions Catherine's awakening. Disabused of her illusions, Catherine can admit: '~ was blind. I had not seen her h o n e s t l y . . , no r was she a priestess after all nor anything else I had so foolishly imagined, but only a frus- trated w o m a n growing o lde r" (p. 214). Laying to rest an adorat ion for a false goddess enables the girl to embrace her talent, her indi- viduality wi thin her family, and her o w n identity: "I am Catherine d 'Amato and that's all right. It's g o o d " (p. 239). She has pi loted her way through her fantasies and named, authenticated, her t rue self. Catherine's s tory demonstrates that the young do learn vital lessons not despite, but because of, teachers whose presence in the school is moral ly wrong.


M. E. Kerr, Is That You, Miss Blue?, p. 24

The setting of M. E. Kerr's Is That You, Miss Blue? is an Episcopal boarding school for girls, a microcosmic wor ld like Robert Cor- mier 's Trinity Boys' High where truths about human nature are learned along wi th academics. In Kerr's novel the victim of the system is a teacher, Miss Blue, rather than a student, as in The Chocolate War, and the execut ion is more subtle, more "civil ized." Miss Blue seems harmless, a "gray-haired" woman, small, thin, " w i t h bright blue eyes behind the rimless glasses and very pale white skin." She is distinguished not on ly by her black dress and the huge cross that "bobb ed against a surprisingly firm and ample bosom," but because she lives in her daily life the faith which Charles School publicly proclaims. A humble, idiosyncratic loner, she calls Jesus her buddy and hears him speaking to her. Believing that the Savior belongs everywhere, she hangs an atrocious picture of the bleeding Christ in the ba throom, an action that evokes scorn and outrage.

When Flanders Brown is sent to Charles School, like the rest of the school - - s tudents , faculty, and adminis t ra t ion--she is embarrassed for Miss Blue and dreads being left alone wi th the teacher w h o is assigned to be her faculty chum: Miss Blue was the " so r t w h o left [her] totally speechless, unable even to cough up the minimal civili- t ies" (p. 32). Flanders is an ordinary s tudent w h o feels betrayed w h e n her parents ' experiments in sex therapy backfire in divorce and her psychologist father's trite counsel fails to provide solutions to family problems. Neither Episcopalian nor overt ly religious, Flanders is, nevertheless, searching for some meaning for life's absurdities. The words f rom a hymn sung at her grandmother ' s funeral replay themselves in her mind: " T h e night is dark, and I am far f rom home. Lead thou me on" (p. 12). In the beginning, however, she fails to discern any indication of a leader in Miss Blue, thinking her weird.

Unique among other teachers examined here, Miss Blue teaches science, dramatizing her subject so originally that, during the last hour of the day, she engages even Flanders, self-proclaimed "hater of science and dunce about all things scientific" (p. 96). Alert to her surroundings though a living model of "O Sancta Simplicitas," the mot to of the school 's secret society, Miss Blue works into her lessons sly comments on what is going on among the students: for example, she names "Gases that refuse to combine wi th anything else under any condi t ions" the " snob gases" (p. 124).

Because the eccentr ic Miss Blue is shunned by her colleagues and students, her f requent compan ion is Mary Queen of Scots in a huge painting at the top of the stairs, wi th w h o m she communicates f rom a straight-backed, w o o d e n chair in the hall. Miss Blue's eccentr ic i ty


is declared mental instability when she chants aloud in her room, remaining there during chapel services because she is waiting for Christ, literally interpreting Revelations 3:30: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; and if anYIone ] . . . open the door, I will come i n . . . and will sup with [her], and [she] with me." Then it is that Flanders, without knowing why, weakly--and vainly--comes to Miss Blue's defense, wondering why just before Christmas a Chris- tian school can dismiss without any faculty protest a teacher because she communicates with Jesus. Flanders and two of her friends decide that Miss Blue must not leave without a gesture of appreciation. They decide to present her with the painting of Mary Queen of Scots and a forged thank-you note from the administra- tion. The prayer for generosity and largeness of spirit under the caption of the painting typifies Miss Blue. The caption itself-- "DEATH-CELL PRAYER OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS before she placed her head on the executioner's block. At the decree of her own cousin, also a woman"--provides an ironic synopsis of the smallness, pitilessness, and hypocrisy rampant in the school, which, again like Cormier's, symbolizes corrupt institutions, calling into question particularly the authenticity of some religious institutions.

The cruel dismissal of Miss Blue occasions, first, Flanders's ques- tioning of her own judgment and rejection of her mother for leaving her father; then, the reunion of Flanders with her mother; and, finally, the clearing away of half-truths and false assumptions between mother and daughter. On New Year's Eve Flanders and the classmate she is visiting decide to go to church and to "take God back" (p. 166). At the end of the academic year, Flanders remarks that the one thing she'd learned at Charles, "a little world, with atl the lessons of the large one taught in miniscule," was that "It 's hard to be certain of much" (p. 170).

Similarly, it is hard to be certain of what the provocative ending of Kerr's novel means. Long after Flanders has lost track of her closest school friends, she remembers and wonders about her teacher, Miss Blue. In her daydreams Miss Blue appears among Christmas crowds in New York City-, their eyes meet, and Flanders says, "It 's me. Is it really you?" Surely Miss Blue has taught Flanders much besides science: perhaps that God is bigger than organized religion; perhaps shame for following a crowd that persecutes anyone who marches to the music of a different drummer; perhaps courage to be herself; perhaps compassion for those she loves. Certainly, not re- gret for having given under false premnses a cherished school pos- session to one who valued its meaning. Flanders's fantasized discovery of Miss Blue seems to be an unvoiced echo of the Mary Queen of Scots prayer:

148 Children's Li terature in Educat ion

Is That You, Miss Blue?, pp. 67-68, 146

Grant that we may realize that the little things in life are those which create our differences, and that in the big things in life, we are as one under God. And, O Lord, let us never forget to be kind. Amen.

Flanders 's s trong m e m o r y of Miss Blue attests that it is her fo rmer teacher w h o has led her to the w i s d o m and humil i ty expressed in the prayer.

This survey of fictional teachers o f embryon ic Kiinstlerin does not p re t end to be scientific or comprehens ive . Even so, it points to some interesting, even surprising, inferences. Of course, just as the novels por t ray the teachers pr imar i ly th rough the eyes of the pupils (with an occasional narrat ive corrective), the conclusions are those of a single reader, a somet ime child and for many years a teacher. The perspec t ive of, say, a Karen Alcott in A Portrai t o f Mysel f or a Miss Langhorn in Nilda might modera te the teacher-character ' s severi ty and ameliorate the adverse judgment of this child g rown up to be the teacher she always knew, at some level o f awareness, she wou ld be, one whose nightmares were haunted, even at six years of age, by overbear ing personages in black suits w h o menaced not only those youngsters w h o s tepped out o f line but also those w h o lived in fear that they might unwit t ingly do so.

If f ict ion be true, teachers f rom the t ime of Jane Eyre to that o f Cather ine d 'Amato have not changed radically despite the concur- rent revolut ion in concep ts of the child and phi losophies of education. Today perhaps there are a greater n u m b e r of s t o rybook teachers w h o genuinely regard their pupils as individuals, persons , and potent ia l coworkers than there are teachers w h o conceive of students as a h o m o g e n e o u s class, objects, and the enemy. But the latter certainly have not per ished.

Contrary to my impress ionable m e m o r y that teachers receive a bad press in f ict ion for young readers, that those w h o fail to "measure u p " far o u t n u m b e r those w h o do, nine of the fifteen teachers stud- l ed - - inc lud ing Miss Temple he r se l f - -a re intelligent, competen t , and compassionate . In the novels o f more recent decades the pro- po r t i on of good teachers is even higher, seven of ten. Of the six bad teachers, including Mr. Brocklehurst , only o n e - - K a r e n Alco t t - - finally seems to make a real difference in a s tudent ' s life. Alcott 's iniquitous behavior, counteracted by other, humane influences, actually helps Cather ine to build character, to discriminate be tween harmful and helpful illusion. Fictional s tudents of o ther arrogant, bigoted, fatuous, or cruel teachers, like Anne of Green Gables, are so de te rmined or dest ined to learn that they do so regardless of their teachers ' deficiencies. Such cases may indeed be more numer-

Not A lways Does She Gladly Teach 149

ous and t ruer in fict ion than in reality. Nevertheless, they are sources of hope for thwar ted young readers.

Of the nine teachers w h o exert a beneficial influence, all make a significant difference at critical times in students ' lives and shape their courses toward the future. Only one, however, serves as an actual teacher role-model, inspiring her student to fol low her into the profession: Anne Shirley's Miss Stacy. A few, like Julie Trelling's Aunt Cordelia or Miss Blue, evoke sympathy for themselves as teachers but send for th unpleasant signals about teaching as a profession. Other inspirational teachers help students to find their owe. directions and to develop self-trust. What matters is not so much that they--Dr . McIntyre, Mrs. Home, or Mrs. Ramsay--are teachers, but that it is they w h o teach, that the right adult pe rson happens along at a crucial stage o f the child's or adolescent 's deve lopment to unders tand and guide her toward recogni t ion and embracement of her self, including, and de te rmined to a great degree by, her gifts.

References

Alcott, Louisa May, Little Women (1868-1869). New York: Modern Library, 1983.

Bront6, Charlotte, Jane Eyre, 3d ed. (1848). New York: Bantam, 1987. Hunt, Irene, Up a Road Slowly. Chicago: Fotlett, 1966. Hunter, Mollie, A Sound of Chariots. New York: Harper, 1972. Kerr, M. E., Is That You, Miss Blue? New York: Harper & Row, 1975. Madison, Winifred, A Portrait of Myself. New York: Random House, 1979. Mohr, Nicholasa, Nilda. New York: Bantam, 1974. Montgomery, Lucy Maud, Anne of Green Gables (1908). New York: Ban-

tam, 1987. Oneal, Zibby, The Language of Goldfish. New York: Viking, 1980. Paterson, Katherine, The Great Gilly Hopkins. New York: Crowell, 1978. Rubin, Louis D., Jr., An Apple for My Teacher: Twelve Authors Tell about

Teachers Who Made the Difference. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin, 1987. Sachs, Marilyn, A Summer's Lease. New York: Dutton, 1979.

Documents

Not always gladly does she teach, nor gladly learn: Teachers inKünstlerinroman for young readers