The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Miss Brodie fails to be a good teacher because she teaches on her own accord, gives her students wrong impressions, and displays unprofessional behavior towards her staff and pupils.
As a schoolteacher in Edinburgh during the 1930’s there were many rules and regulations that teachers had to adhere to in order to successfully feed the minds of their young pupils. Schoolteachers had more of a responsibility during this period than today because school was the only source of information and education that people could receive. Due to this fact, the government set strict policies and curriculums (and still do) that teachers must follow so that students could grow up to become well round individuals. Miss Brodie seemed to side step, insult or simply ignore some of the curriculum that was given, and teach her students on her own conditions. An example of this is when Miss Brodie is telling the girls that she and Miss MacKay have a radical difference in their principals of education. Miss Brodie has told Miss MacKay that the girls will be equipped with the necessary information needed to pass the end of term exams. After she says this to the headmistress, Miss Brodie says to the girls:
I trust you girls to work hard and try to scrape through (the exams), even if you learn the stuff and forget it the next day.
This statement is telling the girls that she does not believe in the required curriculum and she wouldn’t care if they have forgot it after their exams. She only wants the girls to study of these exams so that she can have an excuse to boast to Miss MacKay, seeing the girls do well in them is not her primary concern.
Another example of Miss Brodie teaching on her own accord was her lesson under the Elm tree where she told her students about her holiday in Egypt. It is evident that Miss Brodie is pretending to teach her students but trying to make it quit believable for all who look upon her shaded class when she says to her students:
Hold up your books, prop them up in you hands, in case of any intruders, we are doing out history lesson…our poetry…English grammar.
Although Miss Brodie’s lessons were somewhat educational and her students learnt new concepts and ideas, the schools during that time would not allow “freestyle teaching” because it made the students too reprehensive. By sett...
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...f lust with Mr. Lloyd only creates a poor image for the students to have of her. Miss Brodie’s hostility toward Miss MacKay also demonstrates her inability to maintain a professional manner. She is constantly telling her students indirectly the she does not like Miss MacKay through various tactics. When Miss Brodie lashes out to Miss Mackay for trying to make her resign, she makes matters worse for herself because is only creates more tension and frustration between the two teachers. Miss Brodie unprofessional manner and inability to maintain her lust gives good reason for why she is a poor teacher.
As a person, Miss Brodie does have many positive qualities that she seems to have used in the classroom. Her students did take interest in her teaching, but only because they were so different from what they were used to. Miss Brodie was a very smart and well-traveled woman, which was another positive aspect that she brought to her classroom. However her inability to teach the given curriculum, giving her students wrong impressions, and her numerous affairs and arguments with the staff leads one to believe that even though Miss Brodie was in her prime, she was still a poor teacher.
Using it as a personal example, the author, Joanne Lipman, describes the death of a former teacher, Mr. K, who is described as an amazingly strict teacher. Though music and the later success of Mr. K’s students seem completely unrelated, the author accredits the success to Mr. K’s teaching methods. Lipman includes this story in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of classic education. In addition to this personal example, the author then provides a plethora of research which supports the prior claim. Moreover, Joanne Lipman quotes research from sources such as psychologists, the U.S. Department of Education, and colleges. In doing this, Lipman further convinces readers that old-school educational methods are important by providing factual evidence of the ideas found in “Why Tough Teachers Get Good Results”. Though innovation is important, certain techniques are shown to be proven to work and do not need to be entirely changed or removed. In paragraph 7, Lipman compares conventional teaching to traditional teaching, expressing that conventional teachers are being too nice to their students. The author states this to express that this conventional style of teaching is not nearly as effective as traditional methods such as rote memorization, and is wrongly praised more often than the latter. As can be seen, Joanne Lipman wrote this article to convince
...management of their educational establishments. Although there are many debates still taking place today on how the education system needs improving or re-addressing, the fact remains that the education acts focused on in this essay, greatly impacted and improved the British education system in terms of the quality of education and equality for pupils.
To Whom It May Concern: “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. I have had the pleasure of being a student in Ms. Frizzle’s fourth grade class. I believe that Ms. Frizzle would make a great representative of the teachers in the Caesar Rodney School District. I have reason to believe this by her teaching style, the time she taught us about space, and her knowledge about science.
Lacks, C. (1997). The teacher's nightmare: Getting fired for good teaching. English Journal, 86 (2), 29-32.
When Miss Hancock came to teach at the high school, she was filled with eccentricity and liveliness. This enthusiasm quickly turned into disappointment as the students swiftly discounted Miss Hancock. The student's first impression of Miss Hancock was that she was a joke, and they didn't take her very seriously. This rapidly dampened Miss Hancock's spirit "By then, stripped of 15 years of overblown confidence, she offered her material shyly, hesitantly, certain of rejection, of humiliation," (Pg.
Unfortunately, her first class did not go well. The students had already read the entire textbook and looked over the syllabus, so they believed that they already knew everything Ms. Watson had to teach them. They were
As a student, I have experienced good and bad teachers. Throughout high school, bad teachers would carelessly assign class work without giving precise instructions on how to do it. Good teachers possess qualities such as: organization, professionalism, and creativeness. Mrs. Grubbs is the best teacher I have ever had. Dedicated teachers, like Mrs. Grubbs, create captivating ways for students to learn test material, set high standards for students, and inspire students to become better at their task.
As a child Mrs. Sherman had an extraordinarily open mind to learn and shared the gift with others. She has inspired many others to open their mind and explore the wonders of learning. Mrs. Sherman's older brother was one of her strongest influences. Every day when he would come from school she would be elated by his books and studies from that day. Seeing as how excited she was for school she would often play school with her dolls and cats while attempting to teach them everything she could. Once she had started school the ability to learn and teach others was immediately apparent. They had to stand in the front of the room and recite the alphabet and count to one hundred. Mrs. Sherman strongly observed the other students and noticed how some could not master the task from their teacher. She did not like to see her peers suffer, which led her to helping them during recess.She, would help her peers gain confidence and knowledge by helping them learn to count and recite the alphabet. The gift to teach was something that just came naturally to her as a first grader.
...roughout the session. “Good teachers are not born, nor are they made by tutors. They make themselves. Whats more, anyone can teach well. Research shows that there is no personality type that makes a good teacher. Whether you are a shy introvert or an enthusiastic extrovert, you can teach effectively, but only if you know how to learn from your mistakes and your successes”. (Petty 2009 pg.516 2009)
Starting off, Laura betrayal’s her students who she teaches. The students in her school love her and are enthusiastic about learning from her teaching. “Children [write] on the blackboard, ‘We lov ar ticher’” (Porter 1695). But Laura does not put all her commitment and passion to her teaching. As stated by Sister Mary Bride, “Even though she was a teacher, she had no love for the little children who crowded around her each morning with fervent greetings and festooned her desk with flowers. They ‘remain strangers to her’” (129). A teacher is supposed to love her children, to be part of them, and to focus in her children. With the lack of eagerness and vow to accomplish her activities as a teacher, she is making less of herself and betraying her students.
From school buildings to supplies and teacher license requirements, life is very different for students and teachers today compared to two centuries ago. Today’s teachers receive higher education to learn the profession, and students learn new subjects such as foreign language, art, health, and science. After a long day of learning, most take the school bus home and continue their studies further. One thing that is similar between education in the 1800s and education now, however, is that children grow up to become well-educated, well-rounded individuals who are knowledgeable about themselves and the world around
The best kind of teachers are the ones who not only care about how you grow in their class, but how you grow as a person. A good teacher teaches us how to write essays and take notes. A great teacher teaches us skills that carry us throughout our life. They teach the kinds of skills that make us better people and better leaders. I have been blessed to have a teacher who wants to see me excel in all aspects of my junior high and high school career and not just in her class. Ruthi McGarry would not be classified as just a teacher, she is more than a teacher, she was a student, a mother , a rape victim, No matter who you were Mrs. Mcgarry would draw you into her own little family and treat you like a child of her own. Thousands of kids could tell
This essay will critically analyse the discourses, positions and relationships, as well as certain individuals habitus’ (after Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992, cited in Gale & Densmore, 2000), which influence the classroom of Mark Thackeray (Sidney Potier) in the film To Sir with Love (Clavell, 1966). Via this analysis, I argue that the film portrays a simplistic, commercial palatable rather than a realistic image of the challenges of teaching, leading the viewer to a distorted perception of the implications of the various discourses employed.
One quality that Mrs. Jones has that demonstrates a poor educational system, is her way of belittling the students. She never said comments like, "try harder next time," or anything encouraging. She just looks down upon students who do poorly. This is similar to the comment made in the story by Zawodniak where the teacher, Jeff, says, "I’ll have to help some of you more than I want to"(125). Both of these types of attitudes make students intimidated and afraid to ask anymore questions. Teachers should say comments more along the lines of, "if there are any questions…." Or anything encouraging. They should be open and willing to do anything for the students, but this is definitely not the attitude taken on by Mrs. Jones, or Jeff. Mrs. Jones loves giving back tests with bad grades. When the time came for Mrs. Jones to hand back a te...
As I walked into what was unmistakably the office of a former elementary school teacher, Ms. Caruthers greeted me with a warning. “I just came back from a Methods of Teaching Social Studies class and I may need a moment to shake myself out of that mindset,” she shared with a smile. Since I enjoy social studies, I assured her that was no problem. I looked around the room, filled with books, old educational posters proclaiming ideas such as “Every Civilization has GRAPES: 6 Factors to Analyze World Civilizations and Cultures” and “Take APPARTS Primary Sources,” a slew of shiny awards from the Student Oklahoma Education Association, and various pictures of loved ones and found it as interesting and inviting as she is. During our time together, Ms. Caruthers not only shared milestones in her impressive career, she also defined the characteristics of a great teacher and provided personal insight on how to improve education today. At the end of the interview, the recurring theme was clear: June Caruthers exemplifies a teacher who is devoted to her students and to the intricate process of learning.