For the past couple of days I have been reading "Scat" and its really good so far. It starts with two kids in a class room (private school) with the least liked teacher in the school. Their both scared their going to be called on, but she fakes it and calls on the bully of the grade. He stalls for about five minutes until the teacher forces him to write a 500 word essay. She points the pencil threateningly at him and he eats half of it. She flips out and he leaves. Right now the headmaster is trying to talk to his father, a perfect replica of his son, just bigger.A better place for the story would be in either a public school or a school for criminals. I think that the bully is so out of place at a private school, likely costing thousands and thousands of dollars. He lives in a poor neighborhood, he dad went to jail, and he has problems with many of the other kids and teachers. If he was in a public school he would not be as out of place, trouble maker, not super rich. He would fit in even better if it was a school for criminals because he was kicked out of elementary school for biting his gym teachers pinkie off.
The better time place for this story would be in the 40's or 50's because they had much more tolerence for physical behavior like that. Also, they wouldn't worry about taking it up with the parents, they would just spank the child with a paddle. Eating a pencil wasn't as serious even if they had actual lead in them, so the headmaster wouldn't even have to notify the parents of the child about his or her mistakes and wrong choices. The time period would also allow different problems with the teacher and their studies. Much more room for comedy and more could be done with the situation while still keeping it real, unlike the real time setting.
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I commented on Amelia, Abdiel, and Nikolas.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post this week. I that this book would interesting to read. It does make sense to change the setting to a school for criminals in the 40's or 50's. Great post overall!
ReplyDeleteGood blog. I would agree from what you wrote that a public school would be a better fit for a setting. And you were also right about the time period.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you came up with some solid evidence and good points when discussing why he doesn't fit in and how differently he would've been treated if that scenario was acted out during another time period.
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