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But all of these things are part of being a teacher. A close friend and former colleague used to reassure me: The interactions I have with my students are no longer the most important of my day.

When I first started teaching, my department head helped me with my uncertainty by saying: Without first-year teachers, schools would not function. Who would run the yearbook club? Who would stay until seven at night? Who would attend the Christmas concert? She is vindictive, willing to humiliate one student to unite the rest of her set. Even in her old age, she wonders aloud to one of her former students which one of them betrayed her in her prime. This is my fourth year teaching, and I sometimes catch myself mistakenly referring to this as my senior year, or my first year as my freshman year.

The freshmen I taught as a new teacher are seniors now, and sometimes I find myself a little envious of their coming departure. Yesterday, in organizing the details for an upcoming track meet with one of the senior captains, I heard myself say first to her: I am having a conversation with Sydney and I cannot answer all these questions at once. She often forgot to do her homework, and I often pretended not to notice when she handed it in late.

She smiled at me, and participated in class when discussion got quiet for too long, and I was immensely grateful for her. I wondered if this slightly shrill version of Ms.


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Parrish was as surprising to her as it was to me. Next year, there will be no students in the building for whom I was ever a young, new, inexperienced teacher. I have thought a lot about how some teachers can stay for years—for decades. Of course there are the disgruntled older men, using xeroxed copies of mimeographs of handwritten worksheets based on some long-discarded text book, too lazy or maybe the more fair word is tired to stop kids from openly sharing answers during quizzes that have been given to thousands of students before them.

I assume these teachers stay because of inertia, because of job security, because of summers off, because their spouses are teachers and they can enjoy shared vacation time, and probably, in schools that are more social than mine, for the camaraderie. There are teachers who love their subjects so passionately that they cannot imagine doing anything else.

This seems to happen most for English, art, and music teachers, for whom there are few other career options so directly involved with the literature, art, or music we ourselves fell in love with long ago. These are the veteran teachers who embody another of the teacher archetypes: But how long can I love the thing enough to make someone else love the thing? And then, there are a few Brodies: The sincerest form of flattery. Joyce Emily says that a teacher is coming, and two of the Andrews depart on their bicycles while the other three boys defiantly remain.

The teacher turns out to be Miss Jean Brodie herself. Her image for education—putting old heads on young shoulders—suggests the unnaturalness and intrusiveness of her methods, and also foreshadows Mr. Related Quotes with Explanations.

Plot Summary of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" Story

As they walk together, Miss Brodie invites the six girls to supper, and insists that Jenny come even though she has plans with the Dramatic Society; for there is a plot afoot, Miss Brodie says, to force her to resign her teaching post there have been such plots afoot before. It is ironic that the eccentric Miss Brodie dismisses the progressive schools for being eccentric—perhaps she does not want to teach at such a school for fear of fading into the crowd of eccentric teachers there, preferring to be considered unique, at the heart of a dramatic situation. Rose asks who is responsible for the plot, and Miss Brodie says that they would discuss that together at supper, assuring the girls nonetheless that those who opposed her would not succeed.

Miss Brodie may well be ironically past her prime in this scene, though: The narrative shifts to six years before. Miss Brodie is leading her new class of ten-year-old girls to the garden for a history lesson. Miss Brodie shows the girls here that all adults need not be the same, that they can take exciting, life-enlarging paths that conflict with social convention and propriety.

Indeed, we might agree that Goodness, Truth, and Beauty are loftier, more transfiguring ideals than safety. Outside, Miss Brodie then instructs her girls to hold up their books as if doing their history lesson, but tells them instead about her summer holiday in Egypt, among other subjects like skin care.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

The answer is Giotto, he is my favorite. Although Miss Brodie introduces the girls to high culture, she does so dogmatically, even when it comes to questions of taste like who the greatest Italian painter is. She takes her own opinions for absolute truth. Next Miss Brodie tells the girls that her prime has truly begun and that they themselves must be able to recognize their primes and live life to the full during those years.

Observing meanwhile that Mary is looking at something under her desk, Miss Brodie asks her what it is: Ironically, though Miss Brodie herself is straying here from the authorized curriculum, she rather severely punishes Mary for doing likewise, suggesting that she is something of a hypocrite: While Miss Brodie is traveling for the summer, Sandy enters into an affair with Mr. When Sandy leaves him, she decides to convert to Roman Catholicism and become a nun.

Plot Summary of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" Story | Education - Seattle PI

However, before she does, she decides to help headmistress Miss Mackay, who has been looking for a way to get rid of Miss Brodie for years. Sandy tells Miss Mackay to accuse Miss Brodie of promoting fascism in the classroom, which she has done. Miss Mackay follow her advice and is successful.

By the end of the story, the reader learns that Sandy has become a nun and has written a famous book on psychology, called "The Transfiguration of the Commonplace. Miss Brodie dies before Sandy's book comes out.

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It is not until she is on her death bed that she comes to the realization that Sandy is the one who betrayed her all those years earlier. Maria Magher has been working as a professional writer since She has worked as an ESL teacher, a freshman composition teacher and an education reporter, writing for regional newspapers and online publications. She has written about parenting for Pampers and other websites.