Weblog Entry 10

In Gryphon, describe three ways Baxter intertwines the conventional and unconventional and for what purpose this interplay is used.
From reading "Gryphon", in class we came to a conclusion that Mr.Hibbler represented normalcy and Ms. Ferenczi represents the unusual. The first time the concentional and unconventional clash is when Ms. Ferenzci is about to start her lesson as a substitute teacher. On of the students stop her and tell her that "Mr. Hibbler always starts the day with the Pledge of Allegiance." However, Ms. Ferenzci responds, "No, no allegiance-pledging on the premises today, by my reckoning." She avoids the usual classroom atmosphere to fit her own. This is the first account of the children being steered away from their habitual schedule in school.

The second accout of the clash is when the children are learing arithmetic. When one of her students make a mistake by saying that six times six is sixty-eight, Ms. Ferenzci doesn't stop to correct him. When the children point it out, she replies by saying, "But, and I know some people will not entirely agree with me, at some times it is sixty-eight." This totally confuses the children as it is not what they had been taught by Mr.Hibbler. The children are taught the "substitute fact" that six times six is sixty-eight. I think Ms. Ferenzci wanted the children to think outside of the box and be open minded to learn and try things new to them. The children are facinated by the new fact.

The last example is when Ms. Ferenzci shares her view on death to her chidlren. Before she starts arithmetic, she tells the children, "There is no death," and that the students "must never be afraid. never. That which is, cannot die. It will change into different earthly and unearthyly elements," Afterwards, the children "absentmindedly" did their arithmetic problems. What she had told them was completely different to their beliefs. When she comes back in december, she tells the fortune of a student called Wayne. When Wayne finds out that he is destined to die soon, Ms. Ferenzci breaks the news to him in an unusual matter. She says, "But do not fear" and "It is not really daeth. Just change". Her reactions to his destiny is very different to what the ideal reaction would've been and it not only takes Wayne off guard but probably the rest of the class. Their idea about death was not the same as the Ms. Ferenczi's.

I think Baxter's main purpose of this interplay was the show the effects of what new ideas or imaginations can do to order in one's mind. Everytime Ms. Ferenczi had an input of her mind and ideas in the class, the children first opposed to the idea but came to partially agree with it, which causes them to become creative. It sets them out of the cage of normalcy that Mr.Hibbler and other teacher in their past have locked them in.