This story was inspired by films of Misa Nishida and Mirai. I apologize to persons who know Japanese much better than I. In any case, I hope you enjoy it, and please note, all characters in this story are at last eighteen years old.
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Miss Misa Nishida taught remedial English at Templeton College. She was happy to do so. She was actually happy to have any professorial employment. Faculty positions were not easy to come by.
But, she was beginning to question her skills. She had taught remedial English for three years now and very few of her students had improved to any significant degree. A number of the more senior faculty were even beginning to complain, as the graduates of her class wound up in their classes with writing skills that continued to be poor. If this was all they could do after taking Miss Nishida's class, then why bother to even offer her class? There was now open discussion of finding someone else to teach the course. If things continued the way they were going, there was no way Miss Nishida would get tenure.
She begged for one more chance. She was working on a new curriculum, new skills lessons, and she was hopeful that they might indeed work. She wanted, at least, just one more year to prove herself, to prove that she could do the job.
They did give her one more year, but if there was no sign of improvement they would let her go. She wouldn't even be given the consideration of possibly obtaining tenure, and if she was let go, there was little chance that she would be able to find employment elsewhere.
But, the fact was that she really didn't have any good ideas. There was no reason to think that her new skills training exercises would have any meaningful effect. She had revised her curriculum virtually every semester, and nothing seemed to work.
At one time she wondered if it was because her English was itself not without significant limitations. She did not speak perfect English. However, the class was concerned with writing skills, not with speaking skills. Her skills in paragraph composition, sentence structure, and thematic presentation were quite excellent.
But, she also had another potential flaw. She might in fact herself be a significant distraction to the students. All of her students were typically male, and she was a very attractive woman. She was Japanese, with very lovely, sparkling, and engaging brown eyes beneath large round spectacles, straight black hair, and quite rosy, dimpled cheeks. She was a petite woman, only 5' 1", but one with very, very large breasts, which were often quite evident as she preferred rather tight clothing. Miss Nishida's dress in fact rarely changed. She liked to wear white blouses, a black jacket, and tight black skirts a few inches above her knees, and black high heels. She felt she needed the heels, as otherwise she would appear even shorter and she wanted to command some authority and respect from the students. And, besides, she liked to display her shapely legs and taught buttocks, which high heels had a nice way of accentuating.
It was clear to her that the male students' eyes were often on her breasts, her legs, or, when walking past or writing on the chalkboard, her derriere. She would often catch their eyes staring at her bottom when she looked behind her, and she would have to scold them to pay attention. They always felt though that they were in fact paying very close attention.
In any case, thinking that she might in fact be the distraction, she dressed down one semester, wearing loose, bland, boring outfits that did little to nothing to make her appealing. It didn't work at all. There was virtually no improvement. If anything, grades slipped.
She was at a loss. She was out of ideas, and would soon be out of a job. She eventually decided to speak to Miss Harding.
Miss Harding taught biology and other science courses. She was also a finalist for Teacher of the Year due in large part to her success in biology. Many of her students were really doing well, much better than in previous years, and it wasn't simply a reflection of grade inflation (see "Miss Harding teachers the boys a lesson" and "The Chess Club," Chapter 9 of "The Lessons"). Her students were scoring well on graduate admissions biology exams, and certainly much higher than previous Templeton students. Miss Nishida was desperate to learn her secret.
She knocked politely on the door to Miss Harding's office. "Yes, yes, come in."
Miss Nishida stepped meekly into Miss Harding's office and briefly, lightly bowed. She would at times fall back on her Japanese customs and mannerisms, particularly when she was in new or difficult situations. "May I speak with you, Miss Harding?" "Yes, certainly Misa, and please, call me 'Pamela.'"
Misa bowed again, "Yes, supashi-bo, thank you, Pamela."
"How can I help you?"
Misa explained her situation, how hard she had tried, her many alternative lesson plans, and even her concern that the students were distracted by her appearance. Miss Harding could see why they would find her distracting. Misa was sitting across from her and her skirt was riding up high on her thighs. She continually had to pull down on the hem or it might even rise up to the top of her stockings. In addition, the buttons on her blouse were straining to be torn free. It was like she was wearing a blouse that was a size much too small, her breasts were pushing out so hard. With breasts that large, though, it might be difficult to find a good fit. Yet, amidst all that she had the most innocent face, with large, almond shaped eyes, sparkling behind her fragile spectacles. It was obvious to Miss Harding what she needed to do.
She spoke with command and authority. "Miss Nishida, you say that they find your appearance quite distracting."
"Yes, Miss Harding."
"And so you attempted to downplay, tone down, and even denigrate your appearance to try to offset your demonstrable effect on their interest and attention."
"Hai."
"All to no effect. If anything, their performance even worsened."
"Hai."
"Well, Miss Nishida, I would suggest you do the opposite."
"Excuse please?"
"There is a Shingon Buddhist principle, Miss Nishida, called shugenja." It felt somewhat odd to be explaining Zen philosophy to an oriental woman, but perhaps that was rather typecasting of her. "The principle of the shugenja dialectic is embracing the opposite. You overcome through acceptance rather than through opposition. Abuse is healed through forgiveness, not through condemnation."
Miss Nishida was only vaguely familiar with the teachings of Shingon philosophy, but she did understand the basic principle of embracing the opposite. She nodded her head as Miss Harding continued to explain her proposal.
"If it is your appearance that is distracting to them, rather than hide it, display it."
"Onegai? Please?"
"Use your appeal, your beauty, to your advantage. If it is you they want, then make yourself, your appearance, you, contingent on their performance."
"Intriguing, yes." Misa nodded. This was most interesting. She could do this. This could work. The more she thought about it, the more sense it made. That which is of most interest, most reinforcing, should be, would be, that which would motivate the boys to learn.
"If you have doubts about the appropriateness of your curriculum, I suggest that you also speak to Mr. Peters. He certainly has the full trust and faith of the President and the Board (e.g., see "The Lessons, Chapters 1, 4 &17"), and he is very open to innovative pedagogy. If he endorses your prospectus for the next semester, and I am confident he will, then I feel that you should feel reasonably comfortable in its implementation."
Miss Nishida had, of course, heard of Mr. Peters. He had considerable respect amongst the faculty, and quite a reputation for original, even ingenious, approaches to motivating students.
"In any case, I believe you should do what you feel is in your heart, what is necessary for the education, for the growth, of your students. What comes first is their education, and if we have the means of furthering their academic development, well, we should at least try."
"Yes, I am most grateful, Miss Harding, yes, thank you."
"Well, I do wish you the best of luck. Perhaps by this time next year, you will be a finalist for Teacher of the Year."
Just the thought of that possibility sent chills down Miss Nishida's spine. Imagine if that actually happened! She would be thrilled just to keep her job. Imagine if someday she even won Teacher of the Year. "You really think I could win, someday?"
"Miss Nishida, you are blessed with tremendous natural talents to influence, to motivate, to inspire, young men. I don't see how you could not be successful."
Miss Nishida gave Miss Harding's suggestion considerable thought. She was not entirely sure what Miss Harding was suggesting, but as she devised her plan it just seemed to all make sense, to fall into place. She at least felt that it was truer to her heritage, the principles of Shingon.
She worked up a detailed curriculum, which she then ran by Mr. Peters, as suggested by Miss Harding. Just as Miss Harding had suggested, Mr. Peters not only approved, he was fully enthusiastic. He hadn't seen anything as innovative as this in years. "Miss Nishida, your curriculum rivals The Program," an avante-garde manner of instruction recently implemented at Abberville, his previous employer. "If you find that you are having any difficulty, or meet with any resistance, please do not hesitate to contact me."
Miss Nishida was ecstatic, and she looked forward to the next semester with new hope, and considerable excitement.
Week One
A semester at Templeton consists of essentially 15 weeks of classes, with about three classes per week. The first class was confined to simply handing out the syllabus and explaining the curriculum. She went through the usual routine of the first day, talking about the required text, the reading assignments, the quizzes each week, the homework assignments, the tests, and the basis for the final grades. There were five boys in the class and, consistent with the past three years, they appeared to be much more interested in her breasts, legs, and bottom, than with the curriculum. Miss Nishida smiled to herself. She had in fact worn a particularly tight blouse and short, tight skirt on this first day of class. She wanted to generate as much motivation on the part of the students as she could.
When she had completed all that she would normally have covered that first day, she turned around and wrote the words, "Motivation, Work, Success, Reward," on the blackboard. She stepped back to allow the students to see what she wrote, and then erased it.
That was confusing, at least to those who were paying any attention.
