In Louisa May Alcotts Little Women, the subject of learning a lesson is addressed when Amy is caught with limes in her desk at school. Mr. Davis has stated he never lets his rules to be broken, and that he never breaks his word (Pg 65). However, does the act of striking Amys palm with a ruler justify her crime and how does Amy learn a lesson from this? However, it is clear that Marmee and Mr. Davis both have different opinions on the appropriate ways to teach children lessons, while Mr. Davis prefers corporal punishment which does not provide a learning experience, Marmee prefers a more gentle approach that also serves as a learning experience.
Although Amy broke the rules by bringing contraband into the school, and because of Jenny Snow tattling to Mr. Davis about the limes hidden in her desk, Amy doesn’t deserve the type of punishment that she received. While Amy did deserve some type of punishment for breaking the rules Corporal punishment is not a warranted form of discipline. On top of which, Mr. Davis then further humiliates Amy by making her stand in front of the class until dismissal. Nevertheless, the punishment
…show more content…
did not fit the crime and Mr. Davis could have simply punished Amy by making her throw the limes out the window where they were collected by the little Irish children, which destroyed Amy’s hopes of retrieving the limes after school. Nevertheless, the reader is left wondering after Amy receives her punishment, if the tables had been turned and it was Jenny Snow, who had the limes hidden in her desk, would she have received the same punishment as Amy, would Miss. Snow have gotten a less severe punishment or would she have gotten away with having the limes hidden in her desk. In the 1933 version of Little Women, Mr.
Daviss approach to discipline is very different from that in the book. The main difference being that Mr. Davis simply makes Amy stand at the front of the class with her slate reading “I am ashamed of myself”. He then threatens to pay a visit to Mrs. March and show her the scribblings on her slate instead of doing her lessons. However, he never hits or threatens to hit her as a form of punishment. In the 1949 version, Amy again stands at the front of the class with her slate, but in this version, Mr. Davis threatens to physically discipline Amy. However, he never follows through with his threat and simply dismisses her. In the 1994 version, Mr. Davis is only mentioned by Amy and never seen. However, in this version Mr. Davis stays true to the book and physically strikes Amy with a ruler across her
palm. Given the time period that Alcott wrote Little Women, the form of discipline that Amy receives from Mr. Davis would have been acceptable. However, it seems that breaking a rule as simple as bringing limes into school could have had a different type of approach versus the physical act of punishing a child. Mr. Davis could have simply written a letter to Mrs. March, informing her of Amys wrong doing, or have escorted Amy home after school to talk to Mrs. March about Amys behavior in class. This would have been a better way to teach Amy a lesson because instead of being humiliated in front of her peers, she would have had to answer to her mother and explain why she was drawing instead of paying attention to her lessons. This would have allowed Mrs. March and Mr. Davis to talk to Amy and determine a punishment that would have been more effective in teaching Amy a lesson. Marmees approach to teaching her children a lesson is more subtle compared to that of Mr. Davis. While she does agree that Amy broke the rules by bringing the limes in and hiding them in her desk, she doesn’t agree with the form of punishment that Amy received and pulls her from the school. However, this now forces Amy to study at home until another school can be found, or Marmee and Mr. March decide to have Amy self-educate herself as Beth has done. Therefore, Amy does learn a lesson that she has adversely affected how she is educated, has put her parents in a position as to what to do about her education, and she may find that going the route that Beth has gone, by self-educating may be harder than it looks. Marmees form of teaching her children a lesson doesn’t always come after a rule is broken. Nevertheless, Marmee is able to teach her daughters lessons that will make them feel better about themselves and in turn, it gives them an opportunity to improve on qualities about themselves that they do not like and to become a better well rounded person. Amys first attempt of learning a lesson comes on Christmas Day on Pg 14, after she has returned to the house from exchanging the small bottle of perfume that she bought for Marmee to a larger one that used up all her money but taught her to be less selfish. Furthermore, Amy learns another lesson in giving when Marmee comes back from the Hummels and asks the girls if they would share their breakfast with the poor family. Amy offers her favorite part of the breakfast, muffins with cream.
At the beginning of the story, Amy is a gangly and awkward pre-teen, not caring what others think, playing in mud, and painting on her skin with the blue clay from the creek. As summer comes to an end, Amy stops dressing in her grungy t-shirts and cut off jean shorts, and more like her popular preppy friends at school, as it is more important to her that she wears what her friends wear, rather than what she likes to wear. At school, all of her friends’ names end with an “i”, so hers changes to
Ronald Morrish would encourage Miss Pearl to speak with Joshua privately and remind him of the rules of behavior, which may entail treating the teacher and peers with respect and courtesy, following directions, and doing the best that he can to learn. Morrish would advise Miss Pearl to utilize compliance training to help Joshua to understand the basics between right and wrong behavior and then teach him appropriate and inappropriate behavior in the classroom through explanation, demonstration, and guided practice. Furthermore, Morrish would advise Miss Pearl to insist that Joshua redo the misbehavior correctly. For example, when Joshua speaks to his teacher disrespectfully and sarcastically, she would be advised to have him redo it in a polite
Discipline, the way to obey rules and codes of behavioral attitudes, using punishment to correct disobedience, an essential ingredient for “good” can be found within our childhood schools. At the start of Wes Moore’s school years, Wes Moore had problems with motivation to go to school and he would skip school with some of his classmates who skipped the same day. This lead to a lack
The lessons that are taught through experience are usually the ones that stick with children for a lifetime. In Toni Cade Bambara's “The Lesson”, Miss Moore, a prominent character in the story, teaches a lesson to underprivileged children growing up in Harlem. Bambara's work is described as “stories [that] portray women who struggle with issues and learn from them.” (Vertreace, Par. 48) Bambara uses Miss Moore and her characteristics to teach Sylvia and the other children about social inequality and the idea of pursuing personal aspirations regardless of social status. Miss Moore has many admirable characteristics; she's intelligent, patient and caring.
In the nineteenth century domestic, maternal women were considered the ideal. Several authors challenged this ideal while others glorified it and showed it as completely pragmatic. After all, who better to raise and feed the family than the one who is responsible for giving life to them? Louisa May Alcott shows her primary female figure in Transcendental Wild Oats, Hope Lamb, in a strong traditional female role. Hope is arguably the strongest character in the story and serves as an alternative to the typical modern feminist society promotes today. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance, Zenobia is the heroine who to a great extend runs the commune. She is bold physically, spiritually and intellectually. She is very much different from Hope Lamb, but in many crucial ways, they are all too similar.
The short story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara is about Sylvia and her friends. Sylvia is the narrator in the story; Sylvia is a black girl who grows up in Harlem. She talks about how a women name miss Moore moves down on her block. Miss Moore is an educated woman who always dresses up properly and she’s “black as hell.” She always volunteers to take Sylvia and her cousin Sugar to educational events. People in the neighborhood thought that Miss Moore was weird but saw the opportunities for their kids. So they let their kids go with her, but Sylvia weren’t learning, on the opposite she was taking advantage of Miss Moore. One day while Miss Moore was taking caring of the kids, she started to quiz them on arithmetic. Kids started begging her
Jane Eyre has been acclaimed as one of the best gothic novels in the Victorian Era. With Bronte’s ability to make the pages come alive with mystery, tension, excitement, and a variety of other emotions. Readers are left with rich insight into the life of a strong female lead, Jane, who is obedient, impatient, and passionate as a child, but because of the emotional and physical abuse she endures, becomes brave, patient, and forgiving as an adult. She is a complex character overall but it is only because of the emotional and physical abuse she went through as a child that allowed her to become a dynamic character.
Study Hall was Mark’s first negative impression of Cushing Academy. He thought this was done in order to keep the students in silence and restrain them from having freedom. After he experienced Study Hall at Cushing for over two months, he could really see the changes and results it produced on him. He realized that he didn’t have to worry about having enough time for his studies. Also, he could see his grades improve every week. One day Mark received a phone call from his mother. Before picking up the phone, the only thought he had in his mind was that he was going to get grounded for his grades or performance at school. He answered the phone and there was his proud mother congratulating him for his wonderful grades he ...
“No!” The child screamed. This one word comes out of the mouthes of young children all the time in contemporary society and it is directed towards their parents. When parents ask their children to do something, this is a common response. It is a usual response from children who think they have a right to challenge their parents’ authority. Children in the 1930s generally acted very differently towards their parents. A high degree of respect was expected from children by their elders. In modern society, this expected degree of respect has declined. Many theories exist to try to explain why the respect children give their parents is plummeting. This disrespect from children displays a great deterioration in civility in modern society. Since many children’s respect for authority appears to have declined in contemporary America, the responsibilities of parenting must become a priority to reinstate civility.
Many Americans choose to forget the past brutalities of child labor. Unfortunately, the past does not disappear. Child labor did take place in the U.S. and the Carolina Cotton Mill photograph is a prominent witness. Lewis Wickes Hine is the artist behind this powerful photo, which was taken in the early 1900s (Dimock). Hine’s Carolina Cotton Mill embodies the struggle of child labor through the incorporation of situational information, artistic elements such as lines and space, and cultural values.
Passage: p. 151: from " Never had the sun risen so beautifully" until "watching the dazzling sight"
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a novel filled with many symbolic references that reflect not only the issues/concerns of the Puritan era but also of similar issues of his own time period, which Hawthorne reveals his personal opinions on. One example of said issues evident in his work is the Puritan society’s view/treatment of women, which he appears to express contempt for through the use of his character Hester Prynne. However, even though Hawthorne appears to not be in favor of how the Puritan government perceives/deals with women, he also doesn’t seem to be willing to allow the equally involved patriarchal system to be challenged or abolished since it works in a man’s favor and at times he even concurs with society in terms
These kids feel out of place and do not know how to act because they are out of their element. Sylvia could hardly walk through the front door when she got there and once they were all in there Sylvia says they all were “walkin on tiptoe and hardly touchin the games and puzzles and things” (Bambara 59). This “geographical separation of the poor from the rest of an area” is an example of residential segregation within “The Lesson.” The segregation of neighborhoods usually carries a “racial connotation as well” (Ferris and Stein 206), keeping black neighborhoods separated from white ones in the nineteenth century. Sylvia’s chance to demand her “share of the pie” (Bambara 59) is now harder just because of the separation and lack of equality that surrounds
1. It all depends on how I was raised because If anyone is going a big influnece in your life it most likey going to be your parents. If my parents taught me to be open-minded and respect everyone's opinions, then I would defiently be persuaded by Wollstonecraft's arguments. But if i was raised to be close-minded and sexist, then I wouldn't even bother reading the rest of her arguments.
Little Women was published in 1868, just a few short years after the Civil War that had devastated the country came to an end. People across the nation were trying to come to terms with emancipation and its implications, and many felt somewhat lost after witnessing the gruesome ideological struggle. In Little Women, Louisa May Alcott attempts to guide the nation’s children through this delicate period of social upheaval by giving them a moral guide to follow.