39 pages • 1 hour read
Kirkpatrick HillThe Year of Miss Agnes
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2000A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Benefits of Learning from Different Cultures
By sharing knowledge of the larger world with her students, Miss Agnes expands their worldviews and fosters their ambition. This has a positive effect on them, as Jimmy Sam considers strong microscopes at the university in Fairbanks, and Fred dreams of visiting the places on the maps she's seen. The students' appreciation of texts like Robin Hood and A Christmas Carol illustrate how elements of the culture in which Miss Agnes grew up (England) can enrich the lives of students in this remote Alaskan village. The benefits aren't limited to the students, either; they appear equally when Grandpa shares his timeline with his friends, or when Miss Agnes brings her concertina to the village hall so that the musicians can dance.
However, the benefits of this kind of learning are not one-sided. Hill also emphasizes how the outer world can learn from the culture of the village. This becomes apparent as Miss Agnes asks the children to write their own stories and tell fables from their culture. It also develops through Grandpa's stories about how Indians helped miners with things like navigation, while the miners helped Indians with medicine.
The story further emphasizes the importance of not forcing elements of one culture upon another. Miss Agnes, for example, shares the children's disapproval at the "flesh-colored' (29) crayon, and gets rid of books that they find discouraging in place of ones she writes about their own lives. Her ability to adapt to their culture depends upon her ability to respect it. She never tells them they should leave the village or replace their own culture's stories with those from others; instead, she builds upon what they know, valuing it while simultaneously expanding their view of what is possible.
The Importance of Inclusion
Through it focuses on the positive changes Miss Agnes brings to the community, the text highlights the importance of inclusion. Bokko's inclusion at school particularly emphasizes this point. As Bokko and the other children learn sign language, the ripple effects of her inclusion show that she's a valuable member of the community. She can contribute to more than housework, affecting not just her life, but also the lives of her mother, her sister, and the village as a whole.
The Christmas play further shows the importance of inclusion. While the children have learned about other cultures, the rest of the village has had limited experience with Miss Agnes. Nevertheless, by inviting everyone to see the play—including Old Miss Toby, who doesn't speak English—the community starts to see the values that they share, such as a belief in the greater good. This inclusion helps encourage the children's individuality, as they see that everyone has unique gifts to contribute.
The Value of Life-Long Learning
Miss Agnes's primary work is in the classroom, but Hill continuously shows how her work extends beyond those four walls and into the larger community. This occurs both when Miss Agnes works with individuals directly—such as when she helps Marie, who cannot attend school for a time, or helps members of the community learn to read and write—but also through her indirect influence, such as when Fred creates a timeline for her grandfather based on the one she has studied in the classroom.
Miss Agnes's demonstration that learning can take place throughout one's life challenges previous notions the community had. However, it aligns well with Fred's grandfather's attitude towards learning. Forced to stop school at a young age, he nevertheless hungers to know more about the world outside the village. As Miss Agnes teaches Fred, Grandpa has the opportunity to study the same subjects, and he applies himself wholeheartedly to the work.
The Significance of Good Teachers
Miss Agnes embodies many characteristics of an excellent teacher. She shows wisdom and understanding of her students as individuals without disregarding the culture in which they've been raised. Her success as a teacher becomes clear as her students excel at reading, writing, and other subjects over the course of a year. Beyond a simple mastery of the facts, she inspires in them a deeper love of learning and enthusiasm for the subjects they are learning, which will allows them to continue exploring after she has left. Fred's refusal of the teapot demonstrates that, for her, such values have more worth than material possessions.
The failure of previous teachers provides a point of contrast for Miss Agnes. Never before has a teacher in this village managed to be both effective and kind, as Fred reflects at the beginning. By showing how Miss Agnes embodies other themes of the text, such as the importance of inclusion, the benefits of learning from different cultures, and the value of life-long learning, Hill creates a particular vision of what it means to be a good teacher, and the sweeping changes such a teacher can make in the lives of individuals and a community.
