Jean Louise Finch: A Short Story

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I had just gotten back from lunch. The half hour alone had helped calm my nerves: that poor Walter Cunningham and wretched Jean Louise Finch had flustered me. Undermining my authority in front of the entire class on my first day! I had cried my eyes out, not that I had let the children see—I must maintain the image of a perfect woman. Oh well. It was no matter, I tried to convince myself. A slight mishap, that’s all it had been. Now that lunch was over and class had begun again, I would finally be able to be the perfect teacher. I instructed the students to work on a paper—I learned in college that papers were the best way to help children learn. Walking around the classroom, I began to feel more confident in myself. All these children, they were learning, and it was because of …show more content…

Little jumped in to defend me, for I had no idea what I was going to say. “Let him go, ma’am,” he said, turning to me. “He’s a mean one, a hard-down mean one. He’s liable to start somethin’, and there’s some little folks here.” He was right: I couldn’t let the children get hurt. Before I could say something, however, Mr. Ewell turned to face him. Mr. Little didn’t flinch. “Watch your step, Burris. I’d soon’s kill you as look at you. Now go home.” While I didn’t agree with his threat, his courage inspired me. I repeated it, telling Mr. Ewell to go home or the principal would be called. Though I didn’t think that it would work (he didn’t seem like the kind of boy to be scared of a principal), it did. He snorted once more and fled from the room. I let out a huff of air in relief. I was incredibly glad for him to be gone. Now I could go back to teaching… His voice rang through the air once again, cutting my ears like a razor. “Report and be damned to ye! Ain’t no snot-nosed slut of a schoolteacher ever born c’n make me do nothin’! You ain’t makin’ me go nowhere, missus You just remember that, you ain’t makin’ me go

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