![]() Vincent Sabella reminds me of Wanda Petronski of The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes, illustrated by Louis Slobodkin. It is likely that a kid like Vincent has had to move because his adult caregivers have been forced out of work, and have possibly found new work (hence some of his clothing items are new, some are old).Ībsurdly new corduroys, absurdly old sneakers and a yellow sweatshirt, much too small, with the shredded remains of a Mickey Mouse design stamped on its chest The world was preparing for another world war, though the children are busy with their own small factions to understand any of what’s happening in the wider world. If I’m right about the timing of this story, what else was going on in America in the early 1930s? These were the dark days of the Great Depression, which hit America badly. The school of “Doctor Jack-o’-Lantern” is somewhere in commuting distance of New York, in the outer boroughs. But I don’t think it could be set any earlier.) (Also for this reason, the story could be set later. ![]() By inviting the students to the front of the class to share their own news she is engaging in what was then known as a Progressive education style, which is less chalk-and-talk teacher-centric. Miss Price is quite a forward-looking teacher for the era, probably because of her age. If Miss Price had been married, she may have been forced out of a teaching job, opening the way for someone ‘who needs it’ ie. Richard Yates was born in 1926, which would make this a story set in the time of his own early school days. In this adaptation more than in the 1941 release, the teeth as described by the children in this story are a prominent feature of the main character’s monstrous alter ego. I’m guessing this story is set in 1932, which is when the Dr Jekyll a Mr Hyde movie came out. In contrast, most children’s stories make use of teacher archetypes, with rare examples in young adult literature bringing a teacher in as a rounded main character. Miss Price is as rounded as the child main character, Vincent, nicknamed Dr. ![]() We often say that the girl code is impossibly complex and full of pitfalls, but in this story Richard Yates shows us that the unspoken rules of boys are equally complex and exclusionary.Īnother reason why this adult version rings true is because Yates’s omniscient, insightful narrator allows the reader understanding of the teacher’s actions. Everything about Richard Yates’ “Doctor Jack-o’-Lantern” rings emotionally true, including the climactic act, which would not pass the gatekeepers in a story written for kids, but which is exactly the kind of thing that happens in schools. This new reticence continued until I was in senior high school when I again found my voice - this time, not lying.Ī New Kid In School story written for adults can be more realistic than one written for a child audience. But the following year something must have happened to me developmentally because in my new classroom with a new teacher I would never volunteer for news. Every single time, I had no idea what I was going to say until I got up there. He just laughed along, and I was often picked for news. Unlike Vincent, my teacher never told me to stop lying. I felt a little bad when my classmates all seemed to believe this too. But then I said the fireman’s hat fell down the chimney. This was all true, and my classmates listened in awe. One day I reported that our neighbour’s chimney had caught fire. None of the lies I told struck me as wrong, and I enjoyed it very much because the kids all laughed at my stories. I didn’t even understand the concept of news, a new tradition for me at this new school. I was of course selected, and I remember standing there in front of everyone and having no idea what to say. ![]() I identify with Vincent in this story because on my first day at the first of my new schools (I was almost six) I decided to put my hand up for news. So our family had to move from smaller towns to increasingly bigger ones. I was also often the new kid in school, because my father worked for the New Zealand post office, and throughout the 1980s small toll exchanges kept being shut down and centralised. Much of his childhood was spent in many different towns and residences. His parents divorced when he was three years old. Richard Yates himself was often the new kid in school. But what might a New Kid In School story for adults look like? This is it. The story of the new kid in school is very popular in children’s literature, which is of course written for children. “ Doctor Jack-o’-Lantern” is a short story by Richard Yates, the first in his 1962 collection Eleven Kinds of Loneliness. ![]()
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