Lack of Awareness

Ursula Twombly, the children’s teacher, who “does not know the half of it,” may well not know the content of the children’s prayers. Moreover, she appears not to notice the hypocrisy of the system that she supports. Part of the ritual in her classroom is the recitation of prayers to help alleviate the suffering of others. But the teacher seems not to recognize how her own actions have caused the suffering of the child singled out as a dunce. Ruefle may be suggesting that in order to devote oneself to the system by following convention, one must ignore the hypocrisies of that system. She may also be suggesting that the children’s creative engagement with their world helps them to be more aware of it, unlike adults who require them to follow certain rules. The teacher’s last...