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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the Maori nickname for New Zealand?

2. What fictional character did Ashton-Warner reference in her section on education on marriage?

3. When was the last time someone bought new things for Helen?

4. Which author stated that "words have souls"?

5. What writer referred to "pedagogical intercourse"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Ashton-Warner say that when giving first words to her students, she avoided showing them any illustrations of those words?

2. Why did Ashton-Warner's white student, Dennis, have a nervous breakdown?

3. Why was Ashton-Warner surprised at the appearance of the new classrooms when she visited?

4. Why was Ashton-Warner upset about the way she handled Mark Cutter when his mother insisted that her son was advancing too quickly in class?

5. Why was Ashton-Warner so worried about the prospect of being visited by the inspector?

6. What are the two worst enemies of teaching?

7. What did the students' compositions reveal about their family lives?

8. What did Ashton-Warner think about as she gazed at the empty site where her old classroom had once stood?

9. Why did Ashton-Warner focus on teaching her Maori students nouns at first?

10. What set the local Maori pa (village) where Ashton-Warner taught apart from other pas?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Ashton-Warner wrote in detail about the importance of "first words" for beginning readers and how the traditional reading books used among young children did not use those words. Write an essay exploring how the use of a child's first words can enhance the learning process. Do children from different cultures develop different first words? Does learning to read from another culture's books necessarily lead to stunted development? If individual children are given their own unique texts, at what point can a teacher introduce standardized books to the entire classroom?

Essay Topic 2

Ashton-Warner rejected the use of corporal punishment, while pointing out that many prominent philosophers embraced it. Write an essay exploring this issue. Is corporal punishment ever effective? What short-term and long-term impacts does it have on children? Does it make a difference if it is administered at home or in a school setting? What other disciplinary techniques can be used, both at home and at school? Include in your essay whether most schools today allow corporal punishment and how attitudes have changed since Ashton-Warner first wrote "Teacher."

Essay Topic 3

As Ashton-Warner listened to a Maori adult teach her students a traditional song, she realized that she could not have done that because she was not Maori herself. She knew she could not bring forth the same passion that the Maori teacher did. How did being white affect Ashton-Warner's abilities as a teacher to a mostly-Maori classroom? Did it limit her in any way? Was she required to make changes to her technique because of the racial difference? Were there other situations (besides the traditional song) in which Ashton-Warner would have been at a significant disadvantage as a white person? Is it necessary to have teachers reflect the ethnic or racial makeup of their classrooms?

(see the answer keys)

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