The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark Essay

She is a skilful individual, but she also has a hateful streak about her. Her aim is to inspire her whole class through the merits of artistic expression: sharing tales of her romances, her travel, and the culture she has witnessed – her admiration of Mussolini – highlights the duality in her nature that makes her unforgettable. Her love for the finer things in life is rather worthy, however the inappropriate intimacy with her selected pupils – the ‘Brodie set’ – ultimately leads to her dismissal. This is where the theme of duality arises again. Her students are constantly back and forth with the question as to whether they love her or hate her. The ‘Brodie set’ truly admire Jean Brodie, but conversely, they have committed acts which prove quite contraire – such as writing a love story involving her which would inevitably be found out. Miss Brodie herself is also shown two sides to the coin in regards to her relationship with her set. She tries to educate them to the best of her ability – one in which she is confident in – but also, she messes with their emotions, encouraging affairs with married teachers, and at the most severe, urges one of her pupils to join the Spanish Civil War – and not even on the right

Several examples are narrated by Tommy throughout the story that shows she is not in a suitable mindset to oversee and teach the children. For example, on the second day Miss Ferenczi shows up to class, she has changed from the well put together person the first day with the neatly pulled up hair and gold-framed glasses. Tommy describes her as “slightly altered. She had pulled her hair down and twisted it into pigtails, with red rubber bands and wearing a green blouse and pink scarf, making her difficult to look at her a full class day” (Baxter 257). Another example, her nonstop talking nearly an hour rambling from one story to the next. The students are clearly aware that something is not right with their substitute teacher. Although, Miss Ferenczi is clearly out of her mind, Tommy tries to rationalize all her untold truths.

Miss Ferenczi comes right into class and immediately shuffles things around and takes the students away from their usual everyday routine. She becomes a breath of excitement to their otherwise dull routine. Miss Ferenczi comes off as a passive person in her approach towards allowing the students to learn and think for themselves. She symbolizes the concept of free thinking and imagination and therefore may come off as an outcast in Five Oaks. Her technique and persona are of an individual thinker who does not simply conform and adapt to the environment she is in, but rather

Because Jane has a very high extraversion level, we can assume that she is immensely charismatic and outgoing, loving to spend time around other people. She probably goes to Barnes and Noble every day after school to do homework with her friends because she hates being alone so much that she doesn't want to do it alone.

How is it that Miss Brodie is able to employ such feelings of fierce loyalty and love from her students? Much like the leader of a fascist regime, Miss Brodie points out her opposition in the school and how her methods are better than those of her opponent. At the beginning of the formation of the Brodie set, Miss Brodie identifies her direct opposition with the school‟s headmistress, Miss MacKay, and her devotion to Stanley Morgan‟s slogan “Safety First.” Miss Brodie tells the girls “But safety does not come first. Goodness, Truth, and Beauty come first” (7). Miss Brodie‟s blatant defiance against the rules and standards set by the school along with her departure from the normal academic curriculum provides a breath of fresh air for the girls,

In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Jane uses the novel to show the common day romance of the time period. In the novel, Elizabeth Bennet, a sophisticated, lively girl manages to change Mr. Darcy, a cocky, stubborn man into a person who is head over heels in love. Although it takes her some time, Elizabeth is able to change the way Mr. Darcy feels about love in general and causes him to act differently then he has ever done before. Mr. Darcy’s self- discovery in response to Elizabeth Bennet’s blunt honestly allows him to re-evaluate his approach to love.

"A policy is a plan or of action used by the Ministry of education to set out clear rules and expectations for the delivery of programs and services to the public".(BCE ) In this essay I will be discussing two major policy changes that have occurred in educational provision in England between 1944 and the present day in primary education. I will be discussing the 1944 Education and also 1967 Plowden Report. Necessary education in England only began in 1880. But before that there were many different types of schooling including formal and informal. “The background of which the

“When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should – so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again.” (Page 1035) I strongly believe that schools back in the Victorian Era were trying to limit the student’s freedom and make them conform to what they considered to be normal. And this very well could tie in with my last point, but I just believe that teachers wanted all students to be the same and they tried as hard as they could to make them equals. They wanted to take away anything that could put one student above another and they made sure that no students could be thought of as less than any of the other students. The teachers in this time strongly believed that students shouldn’t have very much freedom at all and they basically required students to do a lot of the same stuff as the other kids every

In order to teach children, a teacher has to minor or major in an education degree. However, sometimes even with a degree, teachers aren't the best. They may still be skilled, but they could practice certain teaching methods that don’t help children retain his or her teachings, and therefore wouldn’t be able to recall the knowledge on tests, which would reflect poorly on the teacher.

Many student from my high school agree that Madame Schillerstrom, also known as Madame Sillystring, was the best teacher. For starters, she was one of the nicest teachers in school. She treated everyone with respect and in turn, we treated her with respect. She was especially nice to me; she let me get away with things. For example, we were going on a field trip to see the play Les Mis, but I forgot to get my permission slip signed. I then took out my blank unsigned permission slip and forged my mother’s signature right in front of Madame Sillystring. She gave me a look that said, “I’m going to pretend I didn’t see that.” Luckily, she accepted my “signed permission slip” and I was allowed to go on the field trip. In addition, she would

Muriel Spark presents several alarming issues in her novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Throughout the novel Spark confronts readers with a teacher who oversteps her position through her attempts to control the lives and futures of a group of schoolgirls. Miss Jean Brodie supports the fascist agenda, washes her students thoughts with her own ideals, segregates her group of girls from the rest of the students in the Marcia Blaine School for Girls, and deeply influences the futures of each of the girls in her chosen group, “the Brodie set.” Miss Brodie’s actions and behaviors create amongst her set of girls the effects detailed in the social identity theory. This paper seeks to highlight the ways in which Miss Brodie’s actions relate to and cultivate the effects of the Social Identity Theory amongst her chosen set.

Another example of how Thomas Gradgrind’s teachings have failed is Louisa. Louisa sacrifices herself as a wife to Josiah Bounderby in order to give Tom more freedom and to make Thomas Gradgrind happy. Ultimately, she is very unhappy and just a way to get her family into Josiah Bounderby’s business. As a result of two poor outcomes of factual learning failures, it is safe to conclude that the teachings of Thomas Gradgrind are at fault. Opposed to Thomas Gradgrind is Josiah Bounderby. He does not believe in education and doesn’t think that it is useless to be teaching.

The education system is one of the most influential institutions throughout society. Pupils from ages 5 to a minimum of age 16 are bombarded with a vast amount of knowledge, attitudes and skills which are acquired either through set lessons or the hidden curriculum which explains the processes involved in being ’schooled’ and the various interactions which take place whilst in school. State education was made compulsory in Britain in 1880 for children up to the age of 10 and this was introduced by the Forster’s 1870 Education act where around 4000 schools were seen as inadequate and therefore were taken over by a school board

A specific scene in which Miss Brodie has a negative influence on the girls academically is when Brodie set member, Mary McGregor, talks to Headmistress Mackay about signing up for the Classical side, when she does not have the grades. Headmistress Mackay states “Why do you want so much to go on the Classical side, Mary? You aren’t cut out for it. Don’t your parents realize that?” she replied “Miss Brodie prefers it” (Spark 67). The use of the phrase “Miss Brodie prefers it” suggests that the only reason Mary wants to be on the classical side is to please Miss Brodie. Headmistress Mackay even tries to tell her that you will not be successful in the classical side, but Mary pushes for it anyway because she knows that’s what Miss Brodie wants. She lets her own self-interest be dismissed and allows Miss Brodie to control her. Miss Brodie as an educator is aware that Mary is not

I really like those lines and today perhaps applicable in a way in these days. Nevertheless, these are only empty words said by Miss Brodie. They had no team spirit and very little in common with each other outside their continuing friendship with Jean Brodie. (1 – 2) "Phrases like 'the team spirit' are always employed to cut across individualism, love and personal loyalties," she had said.“ (66) She does not want her set to be independent. This is proved when she refuses them to attend some collective meeting and wants to them under control even in their free time – after school, during weekends and even during holidays. Miss Brodie needs to be the centre of her girls’ lives, even at the expense of their own interests, like Jenny’s in the Dramatic Society. She also makes plans for their futures. "Sandy will make an excellent Secret Service agent, a great spy"; and to Sandy alone she had started saying, "Rose will be a great lover. She is above the common moral code, it does not apply to her. This is a fact which it is not expedient for anyone to hear about who is not endowed with insight." (93) This is especially the case with Rose, whom Miss Brodie here seems to identify as special, and for whom she later plans a love affair with Mr. Lloyd. Miss Brodie does not want her girls to have lives of their own, but rather wants them to be interested only in her own