The Friday Everything Changed

Understanding, kind and firm, the qualities that make a good teacher. I will be writing about Anne Hart’s: The Friday Everything Changed. The setting is after World War 2, in the early 1950’s. The story takes place in a small town close to Toronto, in a small, one room school house. The older boys go to get the water, however, one day the girls want to get the water too. Miss. Ralston is a young, assertive, and courageous teacher in this story, who believes in equal rights for both boys and girls. Miss. Ralstonis young because the narrator said the she just finished grade 11 the past year: “Because she was young (she’d just finished grade 11 the year before herself – River Hibbert had fancy things like grade 11).” (page 5). This reminds me of Miss Shields from the movie A Christmas Story.  In this movie, Miss Shields was a young and strict teacher and she would do what she needed to do.  Miss Ralston also does what she needs to do.  Miss. Ralston is assertive because on her first day of teaching, the older boys where being bad and she strapped a lot of them to get them to listen: “But she ….. after she’d strapped most of them up at the front of the room before our very eyes (and even the little kids could see that it really hurt)…” (page 5). Miss Ralston is courageous because when she hit the home run she proved that girls can do what boys can do. This reminds me of athlete Jennie Finch Daigle, a base ball player because of her skill.  After, she said that the girls could carry the water, she challenged the tradition of the school:

“For a fleeting moment we had a glimpse of what life might be like in River Hibbert and then Miss. Ralston hit the ball….. Hitting the ball into the ox pasture happened maybe once a year….. “Next week” said Miss Ralston, ….. “next week Alma Niles and Joyce Shipley will go get the water.”” (page 10 and 11).

Miss. Ralston believes in equal right for boys and girls, she was able to use her personal experiences to prove that girls can do what boys can do.