Matilda Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Matilda - Essay Example Miss Trunchbull maintains significant negative personality defects, believing that the most perfect school possible would be â€Å"one in which there were no children at all† (Bansal, 2). Trunchbull works for the sake of exploiting the youths in her school, satisfying her own, ill-conceived perceptions of authority and discipline, and to reinforce that her level of authority is superior. This is evident in the actions of tossing children out of the classroom window and locking them in a contraption which could be compared to a medieval torture device as a means of maintaining control. From a psychological perspective, Miss Trunchbull might be acquainted to an individual with a severe personality disorder and could well require psychiatric or psychological evaluation. Clearly, Miss Trunchbull’s approach to student discipline and generic education is one in which the student’s weaknesses are constantly identified and publicized, creating a learning environment where the student is not enticed to excel or to enjoy the fruits of youth, innocence and childhood. Miss Trunchbull works against no appropriate model of education whatsoever and clearly indicates her distaste for children in all of her interactions with the student population. Miss Honey, however, is a balanced authoritarian who mixes sentiment, empathy, kindness, direction and promotion as viable educational and psychological tools to stimulate Matilda’s self-confidence, self-expression, and to ensure she can reach the pinnacle of her talents and abilities. Honey’s approach to childhood education might best be comparable to a more progressive model in which the focus of student needs and aspirations becomes the foundation of all teaching methods. The one-on-one approach given to a somewhat embattled Matilda grants her self-assurance by creating connection and an open-communication environment. In Matilda’s home environment, her every