The Baby-Sitters Club #122: Kristy in Charge

SMS announces yet another cool project for its students: Teachers of Tomorrow. The TOT program lets kids take over for teachers, and Kristy thinks it sounds like a great idea. She immediately volunteers, but her homeroom teacher lets her know that they have to fill out applications on Monday. Abby thinks she's crazy, but Mallory and Mary Anne are all for it.

Mallory actually fills out her application, and Kristy kind of reads over her shoulders and copies a little. She says that she would really like to teach physical education. Even though Kristy always loved Ms. Walden, in this book she thinks that she's boring and kind of mean, so she naturally gets assigned her class.

Kristy thinks it will be super easy and points out that she's tired of boring classes and teachers telling them what to do all the time. The only problem is that Cary gets assigned Mr. DeYoung's class, and both teachers were working together on a new lesson. She asks if they can work separately, but the teachers refuse. They even warn her that not all teachers like each other, which surprises her.

For part of their assignment, they need to make a lesson plan. Kristy thinks that gym is easy, so she won't need a lesson plan. She shows up with a warm up routine she made up by watching aerobics tapes, but no one really listens to her. Cary goofs off, the kids follow him, and Mr. DeYoung has to step in to get control back.

Kristy thinks that everything that goes wrong is because of Cary. Ms. Walden gives her a few tips, which she promptly ignores. She thinks that kids hate gym just because of the way the teacher acts. She and Cary try to play soccer, but when they divide up the teams, all hell breaks loose. Mr. DeYoung has to step up again after the kids actually fight, and they both end up in the principal's office. He basically tells them that they need to do better or else.

Mallory gets assigned eighth grade English, which flips her out. She thinks it must be a mistake, complains to the teacher, and he does nothing. She totally messes up in class, can't keep things organized, and the kids revolt. Kristy and Mary Anne try to help, but the kids won't listen to her. They nickname her Spaz Girl and it spreads through the school.

Kristy comes up with a passing game that she shows to Cary. They both write up a lesson plan because Ms. Walden tells her she has to make one, and class goes well. The teachers decide that they need well enough to finish the program.

Vanessa picks up on the teaching theme and decides to subject her siblings to poetry class. This basically involves them sitting around while she lectures them and yells at them, but no one does anything to stop her. Nicky and Margo end up typing her legs and arms together with plastic handcuffs and leaving her behind a chair. Abby finally convinces her to make learning fun, and the other kids agree to start writing again.

*Did anyone go to a school with separate gym classes? I always had classes with asshole guys, but I think if I had gym classes with just girls, I probably would have done a lot better.

*Stacey naturally teaches math, and Mary Anne winds up in social studies, which seems about right.

*Why would Mallory even agree to teach? She clearly doesn't get along with most of the kids in her grade, and she doesn't seem to do well in front of crowds.

*Then again, sending a sixth grader to tell eighth graders what to do sounds like a bad idea.

*Vanessa says that you can't write a poem about soccer because nothing rhymes and then flips out when they tell her that not all poems rhyme.

*The vice principal is all shocked that Kristy is in his office because she never, ever does anything bad. Didn't we learn that she often punched Alan or threatened him when they were kids?

*Kristy briefly considers making the other BSC members use lesson plans for sitting jobs. That would be the moment I quit.