Good Books
"Remembering Miss Nelson"
Ivy F. DeShield, contributing editor
Assuming that you are one of my adult readers, I ask you to reminisce for a moment about one of your favorite teachers. What do you remember about this special teacher, and what qualities made this teacher so unique? For some very understandable reasons, I’ve been thinking about teachers a lot lately. The first reason, of course, is that we’re now in the month of June and celebrating graduations from kindergarten to post-graduate school. And the second is my role as manager of a local college-prep program in Washington, D.C. Working with high school students from sunup to sundown can definitely bend one’s thoughts on consideration of the influences that help youth foster a positive, motivated attitude towards education. And in past and current experiences, I’ve always viewed knowledgeable and considerate teachers as one of the primary contributing factors in achieving the previous goal.
In a particular recent experience, I was invited to sit on a panel of student service professionals at a local high school and share some navigational methods for insuring our youth’s successful enrollment in and graduation from college with community parents. At one point, a concerned parent stated, “My child is presently in third grade; what can she do to begin preparing for college at such a young age?” And here again, I immediately thought about our teachers, the educators who have become, in many cases, a second or third parent/guardian to many of our children. In some cases, these teachers are the only positive adult support in a child’s world. Therefore, my response to this young parent was to insure that her daughter respects and continues to build and maintain positive relationships with her teachers and other supportive adults throughout her academic career and beyond. I told the group, “Your teachers are your resources, and the formula for a child’s education includes only two factors: a willing youth and a caring adult. Do not take [teachers] for granted.”
This being said, I could not think of a more appropriate title in celebration of successful students and their diligent and considerate instructors during graduation season than authors Harry Allard’s and James Marshall’s eccentric and lovable children’s picture book classic, “Miss Nelson is Missing!” first published in 1977. What I should I have announced to the parent group that evening was, “Please tell your children, don’t be like the kids in Room 207!” The kids in Miss Nelson’s grade school classroom are poster children for school misfits and continuously take advantage of their teacher’s kind and patient demeanor, so Miss Nelson takes matters into her own hands in a very peculiar, whodunit manner. Sooner than later, the misfits of Room 207 slam head first into Miss Nelson’s wits and a sudden and unwelcome change of pace when, instead of their lovely teacher, mean and nasty Miss Viola Swamp whisks into the class’ midst in an “ugly black dress” and demands their obedience in a ghastly manner, spouting directly, “Keep your mouths shut[;] Sit perfectly still ... And if you misbehave, you’ll be sorry...”
Needless to say, Miss Viola Swamp’s unbearable presence and entirely too much homework prompt the puzzled students of Room 207 to begin searching high and low for the sweet and agreeable Miss Nelson. To add to this delightful mystery, Allard and Marshall introduce another eccentric, colorful character, Detective McSmogg, who, along with the students, is hot (or I should say cold) on the trail. Yet, as we follow the kids of Room 207 on their humorous goose chase, we watch them undergo a startling transformation from the misfits of Room 207 to the well-behaved class of Room 207 when their beloved Miss Nelson suddenly reappears one day. The reason for the change...well, let’s just say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, or could it be the little secret of an “ugly black dress” that’s hanging in Miss Nelson’s closet at home. Hmmm...” [she’ll] never tell.” And I won’t either.
Enjoy the read, my friends, and well wishes to all the graduates of 2013!