"TROUBLEMAKER"

I think this episode could have been better if the parents of the big boys also were somehow made to realize they needed to get more involved. If they would have had a parents' meeting, instead of just the school board, to deal with some of the issues, I think that would have been good. I would have liked to see what the parents of the big boys were thinking or if they were willing to admit that it was their kids who were the real troublemakers.

We also have to remember that the times were so different in that you would not have been able to get the parents to meet with the teachers....they were farmers and their work was from sun-up to sun-down and they basically didn't have time to stop and go meet with the teachers. I know they show the parents going to the school in the middle of the day for the children's programs, but that just didn't happen.

Fathers were proud of their boys, especially if they were big and could handle a man's work, the bigger the better. Even tho the teachers didn't get that much 'back-up' from the parents, children were better behaved back then than today. I know several teachers who do not teach anymore and said they would NEVER return to teach with such disrespectful children and having their hands tied as far as disciplining them.....

Maybe a little bit of Mr. Applewood's stick is just what is needed for some kids today!

amyk wrote:

Maybe a little bit of Mr. Applewood's stick is just what is needed for some kids today!

+1!

sweetheart wrote:

Thank god i never had a teacher like that in school....well i never had one but in my middle school i went to there was this one teacher everybody thought he ws mean cuz he would yell a lot.. or mybe it was cuz kids were not behaving at all....


but wow that teacher was soo mean! I mean it must of been hard back then teaching all grades together with no help at all..

poor Laura, ot wasn't fair he blamed her for everything!!

I did. She was a first year teacher who was definitely not equipped to handle a room full of first graders. She didn't hit me (even in the late 70s this was frowned upon), but she had a few scapegoats that got picked on, not only by her, but then by the other children as well. By the end of the year, she had suspended at least 5 of us for one reason or another. Did I mention we were first graders? I was one of them and I never found out the reason why I got suspended until I was in college and was talking about it with my parents. I just got yanked out of my chair, screamed at by the principal and then sent home. There is so much I remember from that year, I could write a book...


On another note, I'll never watch the cow birthin comment again and not think about it having a birthday!

this is not my favorite episode. I didn't like that Mr. Applewood being mean to Laura. I didn't understand why the older boys, stood up & say, they did those things, it wasn't Laura's fault.

I agree that the older boys may have just made things worse for poor Laura.

I really felt bad for Laura in this one. Mrs Olsen started his dislike for Laura when he was invited over fr dinner......she was such a trouble maker

ChristineLovesLHOTP wrote:

I really felt bad for Laura in this one. Mrs Olsen started his dislike for Laura when he was invited over fr dinner......she was such a trouble maker

So did i,I never understood how she could agree with this teacher,

Poor Laura. She didn't deserve to be treated the way Mr.Applewood treated her. He was mean and very bad temptered. Mrs.Oleson and Nellie didn't help matters by labeling her a troublemaker and teacher's pet. I can't figure out what Mr.Applewood had Laura write on the chalk board. Thank goodness Mr.Applewood only lasted one episode. The way he acted makes me wonder if he had a bad childhood.

Sometimes the writers made the "mean" people over the top mean. I think it could have been effective and more believable if he didn't have other serious issues, just a stern man who was unfair. It was almost like they thought they audience couldn't figure it out unless it was very obvious.

I liked it when Charles, jarred Applewood's butt to the wall!

Why didn't Laura say to Applewood that the incidents were caused by the big older boys, Nellie or Willie? Why did she protect them from him punishing them? Also at the start, why did she took the blame of the big boys fighting each other?

Just watched this one again. Laura is usually able to turn angry men (Mr. Sprague, Amos Pike, etc.) into softies, but not this Mr. Applewood. Again, I do think the students were misbehaving quite a lot right from the start with Mr. Applewood. But he is over the top and not even trying to be nice to them either. It was a bad situation all the way around, and the school board did mess up not even getting references for him. I prefer the episode when Mrs. Oleson takes over teaching at the school, though! That's pretty hilarious.