The short story “Miss Awful”, by Arthur Cavenaugh, is a great story for many people and has themes for the story. One theme for it is that some students get really kind and helpful teachers, and others get strict and mean teachers, but once the students actually get to know the teacher, they will have another opinion on them.
Miss Awful is a nickname that the students gave to their substitute teacher, Miss Orville. She has been very strict with Roger and his classmates. She took Roger’s toy once she saw it sprawled on the floor when Roger fell and his stuff fell out of his backpack. Miss Orville wanted the best out of her students and so she yelled at her students as they had substandard penmanship, writing, vocabulary, and grammar.
Roger has been redoing his homework many times to make it just perfect and complained to his parents because of Miss Orville’s influence. Roger and his classmates had to rewrite ten words ten times. In the end, Roger stayed behind and took his toys and said,” Flower. F-l-o-w-e-r. Castle. C-a-s-t-l-e.” Those two words were asked by Miss Orville but got it wrong.
Miss Orville’s influence on Roger made him want to work harder and do more. Even when Miss Awful is strict and forces her students to work much harder, not everyone is known for their education, but sometimes other things. Education is not everything, but it is the person’s being.