Sideways Stories from Wayside School

Mrs. Jewls replaces Mrs. Gorf as the 30th-story teacher. Her reputation of kindness precedes her, which ironically causes the children to fear her. In many respects, she is a foil to Mrs. Gorf, who despises children and is uninterested in their learning. Mrs. Jewls’s quirkiness is apparent when she enters the classroom and believes the students to be monkeys. There is nothing to warrant this conclusion other than Mrs. Jewls’s absurdist logic that since the students are cute, they must actually be monkeys since monkeys are cute.

As a teacher, Mrs. Jewls thematically supports Problem Solving and Learning. She is genuinely kind and cares about the children’s learning, working one-on-one with several students to overcome their academic challenges. However, Mrs. Jewls also assists them with non-academic problems, including making several flavors of ice cream to help Maurecia find a flavor she enjoys; throwing ice water onto Jason in an attempt to get him unstuck from his chair; and advising Kathy on how to prevent her cat from running away.

Mrs. Jewls values discipline as one would expect a teacher to, yet students often get the better of her. She believes students when they blame their bad behavior on one another and metes out punishment unjustly or inequitably as a result.