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A Different Kind of School Summary
A Different Kind of School Introduction
The story tells about a different school that teaches and develops ethics in students apart from the teaching syllabus. Every student has to experience a day as a differently-abled person faces. The emphasis of education imparted was on ‘developing responsible citizens.’
A Different Kind of School Summary of the Lesson
The story opens in a school where a girl’s eyes were covered with a bandage and she was directed by a boy, who was about four years younger to her.
The narrator described the head mistress named Miss Beam who was a middle-aged, strict yet understanding woman. She informed that in the school, the students were taught vocabulary, mathematics and writing but the real aim of teaching was to evoke thoughtfulness and kindness.
She wanted her students to be responsible citizen.
She asked the narrator to look out of the window. There, he observed that a few differently-abled children who were unable to play like others. He was corrected by Miss Beam saying that it was their ‘lame day’. In her opinion, students should appreciate and understand misfortune.
Her objective was to make her students experience the pain of deformity. In each term every child had one blind day, one lame day, one deaf day, one injured day and one dumb day.
On blind day the students promised not to peep through the bandage. Other students were given duty to assist and guide to make a collaborative effort.
She reiterated that the experiment was successful and there was no scope of unpleasantness. The students took it sportingly and they realised the real situation.
Thereafter, he was given a chance to interact with a girl. She was blind that day. She told him about her experience. She said that the helper was sensitive enough to help her.
When he asked her to come along, she took him for a walk. She informed him about the ‘the lame days’, she had experienced. She was afraid of being blind at the most.
She told him about a girl, Millie, the head girl, who was walking with Miss Beam. She also talked about the gardener, Peter.
The whole experience made the narrator thoughtful and left the school with heavy heart.
Peace Summary