Journal Entry:
Scouts Perspective (Chapter 2)
Today was me and Jems first day of school. Jem said he would take me to school and Atticus told me that Jem would be delighted to show me where my class room was so he did. When we came near the schoolyard Jem told me that during school hours I was not aloud to bother him, Approach him with requests to enact a chapter of Tarzan and the Ant Men, to embarrass him with references to his private life, or tag along behind him at recess and noon. I had to stay with the first grade and he would stay with the fifth. I was to leave him alone.
When I got to class I met my teacher Miss Caroline Fisher who I don't think liked me that much. During the morning she hit my hand with a ruler and made me stand in the corner until lunch. Miss Caroline also made me read the alphabet, most of my first grade reader, and the stock-market quotations from The Mobile Register aloud. She told me to tell Atticus to stop teaching me to read and that she could do it on her own. She didn't want it to interfere with my reading. But I told her nobody's been teaching me to read and that Jem thinks I was just born reading. Miss Caroline thought I was lying and still insisted to tell Atticus to stop teaching me to read so I guess I just had to go along with it. Later I told Jem about what happened and he told me Miss Caroline was starting a new teaching thing she learned in college and not to worry about it. Miss Caroline then caught me writing today when I was trying to write a letter to Dill. She told me to tell Atticus to stop teaching me to write to, which is Calpurnias fault.
Later on before lunch time Miss Caroline asked to see everybodys lunch and when she got to Walter Cunninghams she noticed he didn't have a lunch. I then had to explain to her how Walter is a Cunningham and none of the Cunninghams take anything that they can't pay back. I had asked Atticus before if we were poor and he said yes. Jem and I got kinda worried. Jem then asked him if we were as poor as the cunninghams and he said no. It made me feel a little better but I don't want to be poor. Atticus told me and Jem more about the Cunninghams and how they got so poor and their backround. I wish I new all that when I had to explain things to Miss Caroline. It would have been a lot easier for her to understand and it would have saved myself from some inconvenience. But oh well it was beyond my ability to explain things as well as Atticus does. So I just told Miss Caroline she was shamin him and everything then moved on.
I got in quit a bit of trouble today with her. She kept on gettin mad at me for my behavior. She even wiped my hand with a ruler and told me to go stand in the corner. It wasn't a good way to start off the day. Hopefully it will go better tomorrow.
