Sunny Youth Journal

The short story Ms. Awful is about a super loose teacher. Her class messes around a lot but she doesn’t correct them. One day they have a substitute. Their substitute is super strict and basically the opposite of the old teacher. The kids find out that it was actually their old teacher dressed up and everyone gets very angry but later forgive her.

I think the theme of this short story is to not take things for granted. The kids had a nice teacher but they abused this privilege and messed around. The reason she became more strict is because the children need to become more thankful.

Technological advances in the course of history. Early humans used rocks and wood. As people get smarter and smarter the tools that they use started to differ. With the rise of plastic people almost always identified it as the Magic material. It can be put in everywhere, pencil sharpeners, cards, lights, and even books. Now a new type of material has the sickness of an atom and harder than steel is on the rise. Some researchers explain that this type of material might be the next generation of plastic since plastic can be made into graphene. But I personally didn’t think that this type of material is going to replace plastic there are two reasons why. First of all, plastic is cheap and easy to make but this type of material is hard and almost impossible to make. it also takes a lot of effort and the items that it creates are not that much better. The second reason is plastic pollutes our oceans and takes a lot of energy to make. Same with this material it also takes a lot of energy to make and is not necessarily cleaner than plastic. I think people want to remove plastic because of how much waste is produced and how much pollution it does but this material also does that. However, it has the same way of making it similar to plastic but it is way harder. Lastly, I think that the new material is not that helpful, but that is just what I think.

In the short story, we met a class, and 2 teachers. One had went on vacation, so the other came in as a substitute. Miss Orville, the sub, was extremely strict and old fashioned. Miss Wilson, on the contrary, was very whimsical and fun in the classroom. But which teaching method sounds better?

Let us start with the pros and cons of Miss Orville. The pros: during her time, the students made significant academic improvement and made sure to finish their homework. The cons: her students were not used to her style of teaching, and proceeded to coin her “Miss Awful”. They even went to get “Revenge” on her because they were angry at her for her strictness, by horribly mutilating her favorite potted plant. So, we can conclude that although she pushed her students, her personality caused her students to heartily dislike her.

As for Miss Wilson, she couldn’t be more different. The pros: she is very nice and likable to her students, and does not punish them for misbehaving to much. She also likes to have fun in class. The cons: she is a little soft on her students, and as a result they are not very well educated and don’t have very good classroom etiquette. As a result, when Miss Orville showed signs of being strict, the students were all mortified on how she could be this way, when Miss Wilson had always been so carefree. What we get from this is that she has a very whimsical happy personality, causing her class to like her a lot, but she is a little lax on teaching and pushing the kids.

It seems that both teaching styles have their faults. Miss Orville’s is that her students thoroughly dislike her, and Miss Wilson’s is that the students don’t learn much in the classroom. I think the best teaching style is a mixture of both, where you can be nice and fun to be around like Miss Wilson, but still be slightly strict and very serious about education.

In conclusion, I think both teaching styles have good points and bad points, and that neither is superior to the other. I believe that people should form their own ways of teaching so that their students like them but also do good academically.

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.

Roger was a kid in first grade,

and he thought that shool was a place to play,

he had a whimsical teacher,

with fun and cool ideas to feature.

One day when Miss Wilson was away,

he thought that the new teacher might be okay.

Miss Orville, or Miss “Awful” he called her,

wasn’t as pleasant as he thought she was.

She made them line up properly and practice marching too,

they can’t run, play or bring toys to school,

Roger wanted to play, but his toys got taken away, he thought the teacher was cruel.

A day after school, just before Miss Wilson was back,

when the substitute started to pack,

he went up to Miss Orville and spelt “castle” and “flower”,

to show that he had the power.

When Miss Orville arrives as a substitute teacher for Roger’s class, she required that the students be obedient. She was a harsh and strict teacher, that’s why Roger called her ”Miss Awful”. However, on Miss Orville’s last day before she leaves Roger’s class, Roger realized that Miss Orville’s point of being harsh and strict was that she wanted to let them have a better life. Roger learned that we shouldn’t judge people until we’ve been in their shoes. Just like the quote: “Don’t judge a book by the cover”

Roger had the best and nicest teacher before, Miss Wilson. She played with the students during classes and even let the students take some rest. When she gave homework, Roger didn’t even care about it. Once she left for a week to Omaha for a trip, the students got a new substitute. She was stringent and mean. She came to the classroom with her plant in one hand, and bunch of works on the other. She was Ms. Orville, and students called her “Miss Awful” . Miss Orville confiscated Roger’s toys, ripped the papers of students who didn’t do the homework correctly, marched them in and out from the schools, and complained about the students to their parents. She insulted Roger by calling him the prodigy of misspelling. Then she asked Roger to spell flower and castle but he couldn’t. After this embarrassment of Mrs. and Mr. Clark were surprised to see how Roger became smarter and was afraid of her. Another day when parents came to pick up their children Nancy Reeves, Roger’s friend’s mother remembered that she knew Miss Orville and said that she was evicted from her apartment and was left homeless with her plants.

Since the students hated her they thought of many horrid ways of getting rid of her like beating her up. Another was the idea to rip the leaves of her plant. Miss Awful started her last day with announcement: “If I have been severe with you this past week, it was for your benefit. The world needs good citizens.” Then after when she saw the plant all bare she continued: “You see, Violence and destruction, Whoever is responsible, please feel remorse for your actions.” After the class ended there was no forming lines and some students were in regret while others were happy she was gone. She gave Roger his toys, and he understood why she was stringent to the students.

The story, “A Sound of Thunder,” portrays the actuality of making decisions. Everyone at some point makes an important decision, whether it is minor or major. Whether it is choosing an activity to do, what to cook, eat, and even to the point of choosing a future and college possibly. The decision you make is possibly the way your future is going to be, from who you will have a future with, what your job will be, and how exactly your life would be. Many people, including me, make decisions without much thought of it. We go with the flow because we don’t think our actions and decisions could possibly affect us in the future and forget that there is reality facing us wherever we go. The main problem is that we can’t necessarily control every part of our future and there will to be a specific decision that will lead us to becoming a certain way permanently.
Eckels, the protagonist, has a character trait that follows and is present in many. Like Eckels, he does not think before making an action. He does not feel the need to think before doing something which is such a common mistake. As humans, we all want the best for ourselves and we want life to be perfect which is part of the human greed. We neglect reality and “go with the flow.” We do not think our decisions could really affect the future, just like Eckels, however, when he killed the butterfly it completely changed history and altered the results with a different winner for the elections. From there, history onwards and events could be changed drastically.
This story is great at highlighting the importance of thinking before you act and that the little things matter. No matter how small of a task or decision it is, or how small you think it could affect your life, there is reality that can come crashing in at any moment of your life. We may not think about the consequences now or if they ever will come back at us, but one thing for sure is that we stay vigilant in our decisions and learn from the mistakes instead of pushing them away.

Humans are a forgetful species. From natural disasters to political upheaval to pandemics like the one we’re in now, we forget all the bad times we should have remembered and learned from- that is, unless we not only lived it, but were directly affected by it.

Take for example racism. It is a long-standing problem in the US- it’s been around for centuries, actually- and we’ve had plenty of lessons on equality, but many people don’t learn. Take for example police brutality toward African-American people, and normal citizens calling the police on them for just living their lives as usual (think of the killings by police- the very people who are supposed to protect- and the woman who called the police on a man who only wanted her to leash her dog, as per the rules). If humanity has learned anything from the era of slavery, activists like MLK, and and a war, this shouldn’t be happening.

But humanity hasn’t learned; rather, it has forgotten- or it has never known at all. Presumably people forget because they weren’t/aren’t directly, personally affected by the problem at hand, so they know little of it. But people who were directly affected by the problem might forget because they hold memories of it too painful to think about. And then there are people who have never known the problem at all, never lived through it, were never affected by it, and they either choose to try and understand and help or remain ignorant of all the lessons they should learn and say things that hurt and never help at all (one notable example is currently in a powerful position and has said things like “the China virus”, leading to violence against Asian-American people. This stands independent of my political views and I will say naught about them).

In conclusion, humanity forgets because of pain, distance, or sheer lack of empathy, which is the real problem behind many of our problems- racism, bigotry, violence, etc. If people would try, really try, to feel what it is to be in another’s position, maybe these problems wouldn’t be so severe. Maybe some of them need never have existed at all. Maybe if everyone read To Kill A Mockingbird and took a leaf out of Atticus Finch’s book, the world would be a better place- but sadly (sometimes), fictional people are- well, fictional.

In A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury, human psyche and mindset plays a huge part in how the story plays out. The story also shows many flaws in humans, especially due to their arrogance and sense of superiority. Overall, the story gives an important message and sheds light on the dangerous inner feelings and minds of humans. 

First, humans’ wish and desire plays a major part in the story. In the beginning, Eckels and a few other crew members travel through a time machine to visit the age of the dinosaurs to kill a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Before going, Eckels constantly asks and looks for reassurance that he will make it out alive. He asks the man behind the desk for the reassurance that he will get the thrill of a dangerous experience without worrying about his danger. He realizes how much of a dangerous situation he was getting himself in, but proceeds to be drawn to the time machine and the possibilities behind it. Due to Eckels’s own sense of adventure and belief in himself, he gets himself in danger. 

Secondly, before Eckels hears about the possibility of death and encounters the Tyrannosaurus Rex, he feels confident and ready. Presumably, in his head, he had played out a situation that utterly fails when occurring in reality. After the official behind the desk tells him about the possibility of death, Eckels feels uncertain and afraid. He continues to describe the fear surrounding the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Eckels becomes offended, clearly still stuck in his imagination and dreams. However, when Eckels meets the Tyrannosaurus Rex in reality, he runs away in fear and cowers due to the sheer size and strength of the beast. An ironic event occurs as a result of him running. Eckels runs away due to being afraid of death, but in the end, his death was caused by him running away. 

Overall, A Sound of Thunder tells us about how human emotion and feelings cause major consequences through their actions. Eckels and the whole safari’s sense of enjoyment causes the whole situation with altering the future to occur. Another way human feeling affects the story is through one’s arrogance about a situation only to be disrupted by reality. Through A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury, human psyche and feeling are shown through the decisions that each character makes. 

In a fateful trip to the prehistoric era, Eckel learns — a little too late — that even the tiniest alteration to history has drastic effects, changing the course of history. Small actions, such as stepping on and killing a delicate butterfly, can have disastrous, perhaps even deadly, repercussions. These extreme effects show that an action can never be separated from its respective consequence.

Ray Bradbury blurs the line between past, present, and future with the use of a time machine. Of course, according to quantum theory, time, as we know it, does not exist. What is currently regarded as an important rubric determining train times and class schedules is just a “social construct,” according to several scientists. Time actually is just a progression towards chaos, which correlates strongly with the butterfly effect. As Travis tells Eckel, “A little error here would multiply in sixty million years, all out of proportion.” A simple action done in the past, such as crushing a butterfly underfoot, gets amplified as “time” moves towards chaos.

More than just the butterfly effect, however, Bradbury is ultimately warning his readers that every event will have a consequence, no matter how mundane. Time Safari Inc. clearly didn’t truly understand this principle. Though the time traveling company painstakingly set up all sorts of technologies to minimize any trace of their presence in the past, and they warned all potential clients of the danger, they still overestimated their ability to control all events. In reality, humans can’t possibly govern the flow of time and their effects on reality. Travis admits that “Maybe Time can’t be changed by us,” further proving how little humans know about time traveling. This uncertainty shows that the time travelers are foolhardy and thoughtless, dabbling in something they don’t understand. This entire scenario is a paradox: Time Safari Inc., while warning about the dangers of time traveling and changing the past, are overconfident of their ability to protect the past from any alterations.

When Eckel tramps off the path, Travis is too preoccupied with the t. rex to care. By the time the that they realize what has happened, it is already too late. Nothing can bring back the dead butterfly; Deutscher is the president now, not Keith. Using technology without fully understanding it has disastrous results, serving only to inflate human arrogance. Eckel, on realizing the disastrous effects of his mistake, asks, “Can’t we start over?” showing he still doesn’t grasp that his actions will have consequences. The damage has already been done, and there’s no way to go back.