The CBB :: View topic - Books: The New Mistress at the Chalet School

Lady Rutherford wrapped herself up and came to stand by the fence at the back of the Elisehutte to watch the fun and admire the way in which her twins, Alison and Anthea, were progressing. Mrs Graves, a former Old Girl and Games mistress, appeared with her small daughter, Marjorie, bundled up like a baby Eskimo and joined her, for they were good friends now.

One thing I noticed when re-reading recently (which I hadn't noticed before) was that Kathie said she'd be able to get her outfit because her dividends had just come in, suggesting a private income. I wonder how many of the CS teachers were in that position and if salary was seen as a secondary issue for some.

[Yseult] always comes across as more of an Enid Blyton character than an EBD character, somehow ... is that just me?

Kathie eyed her severely. "I spoke to Hilary. Is your name Hilary by any chance?"
Mary Lou flushed. The mistress's tone was cutting and she loathed sarcasm. "I beg your pardon," she said.
"I should think so. Please let other people have a chance to answer a few questions. I expect they know quite as much as you if you only leave them to speak for themselves," Kathie replied, that sarcastic inflection still edging her tones. "There are eleven people in this form, Mary Lou - not one."

Yes Kathie was slightly sarcastic

Quote:

Her form is the newly created Inter V, which has some of the more mischevious and problem students in it. Kathie doesn't get along with Mary-Lou at first, but they iron out their relationship in the course of the book.

Róisín wrote:

Is it really realistic for a new teacher to be given a newly created form, especially one with "problem" students in? Surely it would have been more sensible for a more experienced member of staff to take on this form, and Kathy to be given a different form until she had properly settled in.

Kathie stared at her, frankly wide eyed. She was short, but she made up for that by breadth. In fact, she was as nearly square as it is possible for a human being to be. ...Her round and smug pink face was heavily powdered and the light eyebrows had been drawn over with a black pencil which was wearing off now. ...Her voice was high pitched and piercing and she used it. Oh, how she used it! No one else had much chance to talk when Mrs. Pertwee was present.

her classmates who are the most aware of it, don't decide to politely freeze Kathy,

And who knows, Hilda, as far as she was aware of it, might have thought this could be a useful learning experience for OOAO as well as for Kathie. After all, when she left school she'd be mixing with people who didn't know that 'it's just Mary Lou' and might come down on her a lot more harshly than Kathie did. But ML didn't seem to learn anything from this affair.

"You see, Mary Lou, you do always talk to everyone in much the same way. I mean you're friendly all the way down from the Abbess to the most junior Junior. We're all accustomed to you. We all know it means nothing. But Miss Ferrars is absolutely new. I can quite well see that she may have thought you were being not cheeky; that doesn't cover it. I think well, familiar is more like it."

It was a pity, of course, for Mary Lou was just the sort of girl Kathie liked and being a friendly person herself, would have contrived to help the young mistress in a good many ways. As it was, they were to go very far apart before things changed and Kathie, having bought her experience as dearly as one usually does, settled in to become the kind of mistress the Chalet School prided itself on owning.

Of the camaraderie which existed between the two divisions [staff and girls] at the Chalet School, she had not the faintest inkling. Her attitude was more or less right where her own form came in -Intermediary V contained a number of people who required no encouragement from anyone. But where the Sixth Forms and especially girls like Mary Lou were concerned, it was needless. However, like most of us she had to learn the hard way, by experience.

She knew that, annoyed as she was with the form for such bad conduct, it was finding Mary Lou of all people there that made her so really angry. She knew that she was being foolish and prejudiced, but her fear lest she might lose her dignity and the memory of her aunt's words on the subject made it hard for her to alter her attitude as yet. This made things worse, for she was also vexed with herself for what she recognised as an unreasonable frame of mind.

"She's got a lot to learn, poor lamb, but you keep hold of her. It's all there when she's got a little more sense..."

Unfortunately it's the same thing in a lot of workplaces - people who have been there a long time and are for whatever reason held in high esteem can never be wrong, so any newcomer with different ideas must as a result automatically be in the wrong :lol:

Author:	Róisín [ Sun Aug 17, 2008 2:50 pm ]
Post subject:	Books: The New Mistress at the Chalet School
Synopsis here. This is a great one to discuss as it is almost entirely from a mistress's point of view, rather than a student. Kathie Ferrars takes her first teaching job at the School. She becomes friends with Biddy. Her form is the newly created Inter V, which has some of the more mischevious and problem students in it. Kathie doesn't get along with Mary-Lou at first, but they iron out their relationship in the course of the book. A secondary storyline in this book is that of Yseult and her 'talent'. She believes she should have a larger part in the play and is disappointed not to receive it. How do you find EBD at portraying the experiences of a woman rather than a girl? Or do you think that Kathie is more of a girl than a woman? Is her relationship with Mary-Lou realistic? - should it have been resolved at all? What about Yseult's self confidence? Any strong opinions on the way that Yseult's mother has raised her three daughters? Is Kathie's first experiences as a mistress true to life? - perhaps the teachers among the CBB can judge! Please raise any issue you like to discuss, in connection with The New Mistress at the Chalet School. Next Sunday: Excitements at the Chalet School

Author:	Maeve [ Sun Aug 17, 2008 4:34 pm ]
Post subject:
This is one of my absolute favourites - Kathie is nice character and seeing the school and especially the staff room through her eyes kind of refreshes the whole CS story a little. Although, on reflection, I suppose the storyline is like that of any other new person arriving at the school - there is some problem or misunderstanding to be resolved (in Kathie's case, her interaction with Mary-Lou and her adhering unwisely to her aunt's advice to be more on her dignity) and only then can she become a real CS member. Yseult is definitely irritating but I feel a bit sorry for characters like her and Mary Woodley and Jennifer Penrose whom EBD never redeems while they are at school - it's as if they aren't important enough to bother with, so both EBD and the staff run out of patience with them.

Author:	Sunglass [ Sun Aug 17, 2008 5:26 pm ]
Post subject:
I haven't read this one in years, but remember liking it. The thing that sticks in my mind, other than thinking that Kathie Ferrars is dead right to pull Mary-Lou up as she does, even if it's presented as being more to do with her youth and inexperience/not 'getting' the wonder of M-L, than any real recognition that OOAO is out of line, is that Kathie is presented as an absolute baby in many ways. I forget the details now, but the way she's described at the beginning, before she leaves home (is it a guardian or aunt, rather than a mother?), both physically and in terms of her behaviour, is really infantilising. It suggests New Girl About to Arrive at the CS, not Adult Woman About to Start First Job, down to the aunt/guardian/whoever's admonitions that she's being a bit childish. (Reminded me a bit of Beth Chester trying to calm down Barbara on her way to the CS for the first time...) I know she's young, but she's presumably been to university done some elementary growing up? I found myself wondering whether EBD, knowing she was writing for young girls, not adult women (if she only knew!), was consciously trying to create a character who, while she was a mistress, was relatable to as a girl - whether this is New Mistress as New Girl? Or is it simply that this is what she thinks women in their early twenties are actually like? Because in a lot of ways this book is less revolutionary than it seems, much as I like it. It's the pretty much ideal new girl with some slightly oddity or misunderstanding eventually fitting in and becoming a real CS girl.

Author:	JayB [ Sun Aug 17, 2008 5:36 pm ]
Post subject:
This is one of my Top Ten CS books. Kathie is a very likeable character, and tellling a school story almost entirely from the perspective of a mistress is an original idea. Although EBD doesn't labour the point, I think Kathie growing from a girl to a woman is one of the themes of the story. She's only 22, and it's made clear at the beginning that she is young for her age and has been somewhat over-protected by her aunt. I think Kathie's experience is realistic. She makes mistakes, things go wrong, she doesn't like all her pupils. The one thing that jars is EBD's handling of the Mary Lou affair, where all the wrong is shown to be on Kathie's side and she's the one who has to change. In fact OOAO was in the wrong in Kathie's lesson with the Sixth Form, and it doesn't seem to occur to her or anyone else that when she leaves school she's going to meet a lot of people who don't know that 'it's just Mary Lou' and who might well react to her as Kathie does, and that perhaps she ought to consider moderating her manner somewhat. And I think Joey's behaviour when Kathie visited Freudesheim leaves something to be desired, too. She knows that Bruno is young and not well disciplined - so she lets him into the room and then hides behind a chair while he slobbers all over her guest!

Author:	Alison H [ Sun Aug 17, 2008 7:35 pm ]
Post subject:
I think that this is very much of the better Swiss books. The plotlines are starting to wear thin by this stage so it's great to see something new - a book in which we see things from the point of view of a mistress rather than a pupil, and someone who (other than having been friendly with Hilda's cousin at uni) has no prior connection with the school. Kathie's a very "human" mistress - we see her at home with her aunt and uncle, being nervous about starting her new job, etc . Although, as Sunglass says, she does seem rather babyish, EBD's original targeted audience would've included people young enough not to think much about teachers as individual people who also might be nervous and conscious that they're making some mistakes. The poor woman really does get thrown in at the deep end, but that probably wasn't atypical at the time. It's also good to see EBD acknowledge that some people might find OOAO horribly annoying!!! The idea of "Inter V" presumably came about because the triplets were progressing through the school too quickly and because there was no real group of characters in between The Gang and the triplets despite an age gap of 3-4 years. So I can understand it from EBD's point of view, but from the staff's point of view it must've been a nightmare having 12 year olds and 16 year olds in the same form, although they're a lovely group of characters. I feel rather sorry for Yseult. I'm also sorry that EBD seems to run out of ideas as to what to do with her and packs her off out of the way so soon, and that all Yseult does after that is settle down to having babies and darning her husband's socks, as young Joey would've put it. She always comes across as more of an Enid Blyton character than an EBD character, somehow ... is that just me?

The CBB http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/

Books: The New Mistress at the Chalet School http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4900

Author:	Amanda M [ Sun Aug 17, 2008 8:11 pm ]
Post subject:
This was the first book that I read, and my favourite one. I love the way it shows the workings of the school from the teacher's point of view. I found the way she reacted to Mary-Lou quite realistic - and long overdue! My favourite part of the book was the Glacier trip. I love the description of the glacier moaning and creaking and the tale of the poor soul who fell down a crevasse and reappeared years later.

Author:	Tara [ Sun Aug 17, 2008 11:05 pm ]
Post subject:
I love this, too, and it's certainly very unusual in school literature. Yes, Kathie is very young for her age (not having chosen her own clothes etc), but she grows into herself very quickly and it's great to see the school even more from the staff pov than usual. I, too, was totally on Kathie's side re. Mary-Lou and I think EBD portrays the uncertainties and insecurities of a new teacher very well (eg when Kathie is afraid Miss A will think she can't keep order, and not knowing quite how strict to be). New staff were certainly given very little support in those days, you pretty much sank or swam. One thing interests me about Iseult and her mother; when Mrs Pertwee visits the school, she makes some remark to Miss A about not understanding the responsibility of caring for children because she's not a mother and EBD comments that Miss A said exactly nothing, having been responsible for the welfare of hundreds of girls for many years. True, of course, and a tribute to the maternal function of both the Head and the school - but also quite different from your own children, something EBD clearly didn't realise.

Author:	Pado [ Sun Aug 17, 2008 11:10 pm ]
Post subject:
Having first read this as an adult, I think it's wonderful, but am having a hard time imagining myself enjoying it as a child/teen reader. I will say that the glacier scene had me wildly cautioning a friend who visited the Grand Canyon recently. He was, in my opinion, WAY TOO CLOSE to the edge, and Mary Lou was nowhere in sight.

Author:	jennifer [ Mon Aug 18, 2008 4:23 am ]
Post subject:
I also really like this book. I think Kathie is a very believable, sympathetic character - her enthusiasm and uncertainty are a good mix for someone who is basically moving from a comfortable home environment to being on her own. Her mistakes in teaching are very realistic too - she's got solid basics, but has to work on judging when to be strict, when to be lenient, how harshly to judge both herself and the students when things go wrong. Joey is rather patronizing, though, as someone who isn't a teacher, and has only done some unqualified subbing, with mixed results. I agree with her assessment of Mary-Lou, though, and I think Mary-Lou's mentors erred badly in their approach. They basically tell Mary-Lou that if someone is offended by her mannerisms and familiarity, it's their fault for not appreciating her - Mary-Lou has no responsibility for moderating her own behaviour for different situations. The situation in class is a good example - Mary-Lou is answering for other students, dominating the conversation, and answering other students' questions to the teacher. That is not appropriate in a classroom, no matter how brilliant you are - questions and answers should go through the instructor - and Kathie was perfectly justified in pulling her up. Inter V is a weird beast, though. I can see their problem - they have kids who are academically ready to be seniors, but not socially, and girls who are the reverse. However, it makes for a very awkward class. I can certainly see Yseult's resentment, at age 16, being expected to take a back seat to precocious 12 and 13 year olds, and at not having girls of her own age to interact with.

Author:	JayB [ Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:56 am ]
Post subject:
I don't think the staff wanted Yseult in Inter V any more than she wanted to be there, did they? They knew it was inappropriate, but Hilda had agreed to take the Pertwees because of their mother's situation, so they had to make the best of it. I think the intention was that with intensive coaching she could be moved up after a term or so, but Yseult spoiled that plan by refusing to work. I'd like to know how Jo Scott ended up in Inter V. She wasn't academically brilliant in Kenya, but she was perfectly able to keep up with her form, and age wise I think she should have been in Upper V/Va by this time. She's effectively fallen two years behind her age group. I think the idea of Inter V is quite a good one from a plotting viewpoint, since as well as dealing with the problem of the Maynards, it gives Kathie a range of ages and problems to deal with.

Author:	JS [ Mon Aug 18, 2008 2:20 pm ]
Post subject:
I really like this book and would echo much of what's been said. I particularly liked seeing it from Kathie's point of view and I suspect I'm not alone when I say I then felt I 'knew' her and instinctively felt on her side in later books - more so than other mistresses who weren't given a book to themselves, some of whom remained a bit anonymous. One thing I noticed when re-reading recently (which I hadn't noticed before) was that Kathie said she'd be able to get her outfit because her dividends had just come in, suggesting a private income. I wonder how many of the CS teachers were in that position and if salary was seen as a secondary issue for some.

Author:	Aquabird [ Mon Aug 18, 2008 2:47 pm ]
Post subject:
This was my first CS book, so I've got a soft spot for it. I was given it to wean me off Enid Blyton, I think, and I remember comparing it to Malory Towers et al the first time I read it. I did enjoy it, though some of the references to past events (e.g. the conversation about Mlle Lepattre's illness and death) confused me. Then again, it did make me decide to track down the rest of the books so I could find out what it was all about. I think it's a good read because it isn't your standard new girl rebel story. Kathie is new, but she's a mistress, so you see everything from the staff's point of view, and she's happy to be at the CS and determined to make a good job of it. It makes quite a refreshing change to get a different perspective of the school. And I like the conversations in the staff room. One point: on first reading the book, I was struck by this part: Quote: Lady Rutherford wrapped herself up and came to stand by the fence at the back of the Elisehutte to watch the fun and admire the way in which her twins, Alison and Anthea, were progressing. Mrs Graves, a former Old Girl and Games mistress, appeared with her small daughter, Marjorie, bundled up like a baby Eskimo and joined her, for they were good friends now. I remember wondering if Lady Rutherford and Hilary had had a feud, then made up. I don't think this ever happened, did it?

Author:	claire [ Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:37 pm ]
Post subject:
I thought it was good friends BY now (but my mind may have put that in by itself)

Author:	Fi [ Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:25 pm ]
Post subject:
This is one of my favourite books both as a child and now. I agree with JS in that I feel that I have more of a connection with Kathie than with any other teacher, probably because we see her struggle in her job a bit whereas all the other staff seem to be very good at their jobs from their very first day. I think this makes her feel more real and because I can empathise with her she has always been my favourite of all the teachers. JS wrote: One thing I noticed when re-reading recently (which I hadn't noticed before) was that Kathie said she'd be able to get her outfit because her dividends had just come in, suggesting a private income. I wonder how many of the CS teachers were in that position and if salary was seen as a secondary issue for some. I always assumed that this was some sort of trust fund that she had from her parents. I would have thought that any money they had when they died was held in trust for Kathie to pay for school fees etc. and that she had gained control of it when she came of age, or finished her education. We do hear about some of the other staff having private means/investments don't we? I would imagine that they only paid enough for them to have a few little luxuries rather than being a major means of support though.

Author:	Mel [ Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:15 pm ]
Post subject:
I find this book very refreshing from a young teacher's pov. She was given very little help initially, though the support was there when she needed it. Being in sole charge on the glacier trip was a bit daunting (and dangerous for her) I find. I was a bit bemused that she was surprised by the electricity on the Platz. They had electricity at the Tiernsee in the 1920s.

Author:	Billie [ Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:56 pm ]
Post subject:
Alison H wrote: [Yseult] always comes across as more of an Enid Blyton character than an EBD character, somehow ... is that just me? Not just you. She reminds me a little of Gwendoline in the Malory Towers series: someone who is a bit obnoxious, a bit annoying, but perhaps made worse by the fact that no one really gives her a chance; she doesn't have a friend to bring out her good qualities. I don't think Kathie seems particularly childish, at least not unusually so. She must be around my age and I often feel like a shy teenager (or act like a big kid. ) I am glad that Kathie grew to like OOAO, but at the same time I wish it hadn't been that she just fell under her spell. I wish the effort had been on both sides, with Mary Lou (and EBD) realising that she was a schoolgirl and Kathie was her teacher.

Author:	Lesley [ Mon Aug 18, 2008 10:52 pm ]
Post subject:
It would have been nice, too, if both Mary Lou and EBD had recognised that actually Kathie was quite within her rights to reprimand Mary Lou for the way she acted in class. That it did not appear that Kathie was at fault.

Author:	Anjali [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 12:23 am ]
Post subject:
This was my first CS book too! I really like it, and it was the fact that it was about 'a new mistress' at a school that made me pick it up from a library, over all the other school stories. I remember liking Kathie and not liking ML even back then .....completely agree with what everyone else has said regarding Kathie's rights to pull up ML in class. Having frequently been pulled up in class myself for the same sort of thing, I found it weird that the school took ML's side rather than stand up for the mistress! The best thing about this book for me was the triplets - they don't feature in it a lot, but when they do they seem pretty interesting characters. It was them, and not Joey, who I wanted to read more about. I could only get hold of the earlier books then, however, and when I finally managed to read the other Swiss books last year, was horribly disappointed .

Author:	Ray [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:50 am ]
Post subject:
The thing is, it's not the fact that Kathie brought ML up short in the geography lesson, it's the WAY she did it. Given that until that point the lesson had been relatively informal and free flowing - with people effectively butting in regardless of who'd been originally asked the question - for Kathie to come down on ML so hard is a significant bit of overkill. Ray has been the class ML on a few occasions and never got treated like a 12 year old once she ceased to be one!

Author:	Lesley [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:02 am ]
Post subject:
I don't think Kathie was unreasonable in reprimanding Mary Lou - granted there had been an episode of discussion and free-for-all just prior to the point, however Kathie had asked specific people questions before and they had each answered. After the discussion she had firmly drawn a line saying 'And now that's enough. Hilary, what is the tallest grass known in Australia?' No longer discussion but a specific question aimed at a specific person. Hilary was dreaming - something she should not have been doing - so Mary Lou answered for her and then got all surprised when the Mistress slapped her down. Basically Mary Lou should have known better - and I wonder whether she would have dared try the same in Miss Annersley's class?

Author:	Ray [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:14 am ]
Post subject:
I'm not suggesting for one second Kathie wasn't right to want to curb/stop ML. She was. My problem with it is that it's just so sudden and so much of a slap down and it is overkill to the point where EBD remarks that the whole lesson's gone flat with people waiting to be asked questions, rather than the previously more free-flowing lesson. I haven't got a copy of New Mistress to hand (whoops; posting from work!), but doesn't Kathie say something about "Kindly remember you are not the only person in the class" and use a cold tone? It's not a remark that would be out of place with a middle school form, but with a sixth form class you've previously been treating in a fairly adult way... Ouch! I don't imagine for one second Miss Annersley would have done the correction in quite the same way (though I do imagine ML would jump in to save her friend from a telling off, even in Miss Annersley's lessons!). Ray thinks ML is one of those people who doesn't want to see her friends in trouble even if the consequence is trouble for herself

Author:	Alison H [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:33 am ]
Post subject:
I agree that Kathie was a bit sharp, but maybe she felt that she had to try to be on her dignity with the Sixth Formers as the eldest of them were only four years younger than she was herself. With a younger form maybe she'd've felt able to say something more along the lines of "Hey, let someone else get a word in"?

Author:	Lesley [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:37 am ]
Post subject:
Yes Kathie was slightly sarcastic Quote: Kathie eyed her severely. "I spoke to Hilary. Is your name Hilary by any chance?" Mary Lou flushed. The mistress's tone was cutting and she loathed sarcasm. "I beg your pardon," she said. "I should think so. Please let other people have a chance to answer a few questions. I expect they know quite as much as you if you only leave them to speak for themselves," Kathie replied, that sarcastic inflection still edging her tones. "There are eleven people in this form, Mary Lou - not one." Not pleasant, no, but as a Sixth Former Mary Lou should have known better and shouldn't have interrupted in the first place. As to the lack of spontaneity - that tends to happen whenever there is a discipline episode in the classroom.

Author:	Ray [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:16 am ]
Post subject:
Lesley wrote: Yes Kathie was slightly sarcastic Quote: Kathie eyed her severely. "I spoke to Hilary. Is your name Hilary by any chance?" Mary Lou flushed. The mistress's tone was cutting and she loathed sarcasm. "I beg your pardon," she said. "I should think so. Please let other people have a chance to answer a few questions. I expect they know quite as much as you if you only leave them to speak for themselves," Kathie replied, that sarcastic inflection still edging her tones. "There are eleven people in this form, Mary Lou - not one." Thanks for the quote See, I think that Miss A would probably just have left it at the first couple of remarks. Kathie, in her inexperience, pushes it just a little too far. Which is what I mean about it being overkill. There's also something earlier in the lesson which gives the impression that Kathie's just looking for some reason to "slap" ML down, which also suggests that Kathie's perhaps let it get personal - would Kathie have reacted like this if the interupter had been, say, Meg Whyte? Ray still at work

Author:	Lesley [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:31 am ]
Post subject:
But perhaps Meg Whyte wouldn't have interrupted in the first place?

Author:	Jennie [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 2:11 pm ]
Post subject:
I had a male OOAO in one class, he wa always interrupting and butting in, and I got a (cardboard) medal from the rest of the staff for telling him to shut up and stop interrupting. It's truly annoying when a pupil does that, a you miss so many insights from the other pupils.

Author:	Kate [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 3:35 pm ]
Post subject:
agrees with Jennie In training college my friend's class had to tape themselves teaching and watch how many times the class was interrupted by people shouting out and interrupting others and how many times they let pupils away with it and they had to make graphs of who interrupted/who was let away with it sorting by race and gender. I guess the object was to see if they were being unintentionally biased towards one group or one person. The results were really interesting. I kinda wish my class had to do it, but I'm glad I didn't have to video myself!

Author:	Emmy [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 3:47 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Books: The New Mistress at the Chalet School
Róisín wrote: Her form is the newly created Inter V, which has some of the more mischevious and problem students in it. Kathie doesn't get along with Mary-Lou at first, but they iron out their relationship in the course of the book. Is it really realistic for a new teacher to be given a newly created form, especially one with "problem" students in? Surely it would have been more sensible for a more experienced member of staff to take on this form, and Kathy to be given a different form until she had properly settled in.

Author:	Dawn [ Tue Aug 19, 2008 9:52 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Books: The New Mistress at the Chalet School
Emmy wrote: Róisín wrote: Her form is the newly created Inter V, which has some of the more mischevious and problem students in it. Kathie doesn't get along with Mary-Lou at first, but they iron out their relationship in the course of the book. Is it really realistic for a new teacher to be given a newly created form, especially one with "problem" students in? Surely it would have been more sensible for a more experienced member of staff to take on this form, and Kathy to be given a different form until she had properly settled in. Especially as at the staff meeting she doesn't get any real information about the girls as "they're all new to you" or words to that effect. Even as a child I hoped that Miss Annersley took her on one side later and give her all the details she needed.

Author:	Theresa [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 12:07 am ]
Post subject:
Emmy wrote: Is it really realistic for a new teacher to be given a newly created form, especially one with "problem" students in? Surely it would have been more sensible for a more experienced member of staff to take on this form, and Kathy to be given a different form until she had properly settled in. I know quite a few people who, upon starting new teaching jobs, were given 'problem' classes, and even a couple who actually were given newly created problem classes (we just introduced a prep year here, instead of preschool, and so they're putting teachers not trained for babies in with children too young for effective classroom based learning). The good classes are the reward for sticking around.

Author:	Kathy_S [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 3:27 am ]
Post subject:
This is probably my favorite Swiss book, between the lovely staff interactions and the mutual puzzlement of Kathie and Mary-Lou. As I'm sure all of you know by now, I sympathize with both of them, and especially like the growing up ML compared to her annoying generic middle personality. I do agree that ML was out of place answering the bamboo question -- though I think Kathie should have stopped with the "Is your name Hilary" sentence. After all, given that it's the first time Kathie's taught the sixth, and that ML has answered only one of the 3 questions we ever see addressed to a girl and is tied with Lesley for asking questions during the free flowing discussion, the rest of her diatribe seems based on prejudice rather than evidence. Besides, none of that happens until page 142, and I think ML has a good right to be puzzled over Kathie's attitude for the first part of the book. What's so "familiar" about telling someone they'll love the Auberge? Kathie seems even more insecure when ML knows something she doesn't, such as the repeated-almost-every-book dicta about snowblindness and knee-bending, even though she's been told that ML has been assigned to prefect particular walks because she is, in effect, a "native guide" compared to Kathie. However, as I said, I also sympathize a great deal with Kathie; after all, I'm still nervous going into a classroom the first day of each semester, and this'll be my 18th year at it. Totally new country, trilingual school, and Inter V mishmash would be terrifying! It makes Kathie's reactions very realistic. Also I'd have been equally frustrated with Yseult. Not the picturesque hair and mother particularly, but that it's truly frustrating killing yourself giving extra help sessions, when there's little hope of results or appreciation. Yes, I was wickedly pleased to see Yseult's plot to play Herod backfire painfully, instead of the more usual EBD scenario of repentance following damage to innocent victim. still wants to visit the glacier promises to stay away from edge

Author:	Sunglass [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:51 pm ]
Post subject:
I agree about teaching nerves never quite going away, and being very much in play in a first job, with a new problem class featuring an incredibly self-assured schoolgirl. But I wonder about Kathie being presented as so childlike at the outset. My undergraduates don't think of themselves as adults aged twenty or twenty one, certainly, but I would have thought that in the fifties a woman of Kathie's age (even a middle-class one from a fairly sheltered environment), who had been to university and presumably needed to be self-supporting even if she had a small private income) would have considered herself an adult, rather than appearing as terribly young as she does in the opening scenes. Presumably she's capable of being professional at interview, though, or the CS wouldn't have hired her, especially as they so obviously prefer old girls?

Author:	Tara [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:55 pm ]
Post subject:
Having just read that Kathie/ML quote for the first time in many years, I have to say I agree with Ray - it's terribly heavy-handed and testifies to extreme insecurity! I totally agree about the 'first-night nerves'. My HoD always used to say it was ok once you saw the whites of their eyes .

Author:	Maeve [ Thu Aug 21, 2008 11:23 am ]
Post subject:
EBD seems particularly unkind in her description of Mrs. Pertwee: Quote: Kathie stared at her, frankly wide eyed. She was short, but she made up for that by breadth. In fact, she was as nearly square as it is possible for a human being to be. ...Her round and smug pink face was heavily powdered and the light eyebrows had been drawn over with a black pencil which was wearing off now. ...Her voice was high pitched and piercing and she used it. Oh, how she used it! No one else had much chance to talk when Mrs. Pertwee was present. And yet, aside from the fact that she writes "lush" novels (does this mean bodice-rippers, do you think?) and that she has given her girls somewhat unusual names, and that she's what EBD considers arty, i.e., vague and scatter-brained, she doesn't seem to have any real harm in her, does she?