Essay Questions

Summarize the moral story in Miss Nelson is Missing.

The moral story in Miss Nelson is Missing is: “You do not know what you have until you lose it.” Miss Nelson’s kids take her goodness and sweetness for granted. They misbehave and do not listen to her. One day, Miss Nelson goes missing, and they get a new teacher who does not tolerate their misbehavior. Miss Swamp, the new teacher who replaces Miss Nelson, is strict and does not give them room to fool around. As a result, the kids miss Miss Nelson, and they even go to the police to report her disappearance. When Miss Nelson returns, the kids behave well because they have realized that she is a good teacher who should not be given a hard time or disobeyed.

Compare and contrast the leadership styles of Miss Nelson and Miss Swamp.

Miss Swamp employs a Laissez-faire approach. She gives the kids lots of autonomy and freedom to the degree that they start misbehaving in class. The kids defy her because she is soft when handling them. They are rude to her. Her approach makes them “the worst-behaved class in the whole school.”

Comparatively, Miss Swamp is authoritarian. She is firm with the kids. She does not give them room to misbehave. She makes unilateral decisions on what the kids should do; the kids obey her without question because she is firm.

What type of discipline mechanism does Miss Swamp employ?

Miss Swamp takes away the kids’ privileges to discipline them. Specifically, she does away with the story hour that Miss Nelson used to give the kids. This mechanism makes the kids to realize that Miss Nelson was a good teacher. Taking away the kids’ privileges is in line with the carrot-and-stick approach. A carrot represents a reward, whereas a stick represents a punishment. The stick in this case is denying the children a story hour. It makes the kids realize story hours are a privilege, not an entitlement.