Journal #1 Chapters 1-3 Perspective of Ms. Caroline

Journal #1
Chapters 1-3
Perspective of Ms. Caroline

Dear Diary,
Today was the first day of school. I came in feeling a bit Intimidated. I didn't know what to expect. I first began the day with a book. I read them a book about cats. After this I wrote down the alphabet and had one of the students read it. The students i had read the alphabet is named Jean Louise. She was not taught properly. I think her father has been teaching her at home and what he has taught her is not good. If he teaches her anymore it will interfere with my teachings. I told Jean Louise this and I am really hoping that she tells him not to teach her any more. She annoyed me with a ridiculous story of her brother and I could not stand to hear another word so I told her not to let her imagination run away with her. Her actions irked me but thankfully she did not bother me once more up to recess.

After recess we had lunch. I asked the children who had a lunch with them and who would be going home to get lunch. The was one child named Walter who didn't have a lunch so I tolled him I would lend him a quarter to buy one and he could pay me back tomorrow. He refused to take my quarter. I was becoming impatient and then Jean Louise stood up. She told me about how Walter was a Cunningham. I had no idea what a Cunningham was so I was very baffled on what this little girl was talking about. She began to explain saying that the Cunningham's wont take anything because they can't pay you back. She then told me that I was shaming Walter and that he didn't have a quarter to pay me back with.

I had heard enough of Jean Louise that morning and was getting tired of her. I became very irritated with her so I pat her hands about a dozen times with a ruler then made her go stand in the corner. I found later that when I made her stick out her hand she thought we were going to make a compromise. Jean Louise was not off to a good start of the school year.

After lunch we came back to the classroom. I screamed as I saw what the children call a cootie in Burris Ewell's hair. At first when I screamed I screamed its alive. I was so grossed out and I could not believe what I had just seen. The children thought I had seen a mouse.

The children asked me where it went and I pointed to Burris's head. A little boy named Chuck asked me why I was so afraid of a cootie. I had walked by and just saw the thing crawling out of his hair. Chuck tolled me there was nothing to fear and ran to fetch me a cold cup of water. I tolled Burris that he needed to go home and he needed to take a shower and wash his hair with lye soap then he needed to treat his hair with kerosene to get rid of the cooties. I also told him to make sure he bathed before he came back tomorrow. Burris was filthy. He was dirty and gross. H
e told me that he wasn't coming back tomorrow and that he had done his time for this year.

I was confused. One of the older children in the class began to explain that the Ewell's only came to school the first day of school each year and for the rest of the year I was just supposed to mark them absent. This shocked me. I didn't get why this was allowed to happen. I wasn't going to let Burris go that easily so I tolled him to stay. This made him angry and Chuck stood up again and tolled me just to let him go because Burris was a mean one. So I tolled Burris to leave. I was becoming very exhausted and tired. He called me a slut. He called me a snot-nosed slut of a school teacher. That's when I broke down and began to cry. The students came up and comforted me and tolled me to read them another story. So I did. By the end of the day I was exhausted and surprised at how many eccentric families there were in this town. Even though i have had so many challenges i need to keep going and persevere in my career as a teacher.

Till next time,
Ms. Caroline