Baby Bobbie Meets Miss Trunchbull

     Over this relaxing winter break I seem to have watched a ton of movies that somehow or another relate to AP English. I decided to watch one of my all-time favorites last night: Matilda. We have talked about this movie in class and Ms. Serensky said she has never seen it. For those of you like Ms. Serensky who have never seen this brilliant film I will summarize it a bit for you. Matilda is a young girl who lives with her mom, dad, and brother. They ignore her and belittle her every chance they get. Matilda loves to read and is at a very advanced level for her age. Her teacher, Miss Honey, notices Matilda's intelligence. However, she does not know that Matilda has super powers. Matilda puts her powers to use in order to get back at the mean, horrid principal of her school: Miss Trunchbull.
     I am still waiting for the day for Ms. Serensky to tell us "why she is the way she is." I imagine her having an experience similar to Matilda's with Miss Trunchbull minus the superpowers of course. In the movie, Miss Trunchbull makes all the teacher's rooms as dismal and boring as possible. There can be no fun or laughter in the rooms, the blinds must always be pulled down, and the children should be as miserable as possible.
     I imagine little Bobbie Jo with her hot pink backpack and hair in high pigtails walking into her third grade class. Her teacher is no other than a woman similar to Miss Trunchbull. Bobbie Jo pulls out her summer reading assignment: Moby Dick. She did not understand much of the story at all. The teacher proceeded to walk around the room and check to make sure the students marked their books up. Of course baby Bobbie had no idea she must always have a pen while reading. Her teacher put her in the chockee (a small box filled with daggers) for the next hour. Over the next months, baby Bobbie learned how to anotate books, the proper format of a SOAPSTone, and to only write in blue or black ink. By the time she hit fourth grade, the brilliant baby Bobbie could have easily scored a 5 on the AP English 11 test. Even though she pulled countless all-nighters and went through a pack of black pens a month, she learned an abundance of knowlege from her own Miss Trunchbull that she teaches to her little babies today.