TITLE: The Substitute ORIGINAL AIRDATE: November 22, 1973 WRITER: John McGreevey DIRECTOR: Lee Philips
PROLOGUE: "When I was growing up on Walton's Mountain in those years of the great Depression, for me and my brothers and sisters it was a time of making do with the little there was. A time of stretching a nickel until it bought a dime's worth, often a time of doing without. In such times, keeping children in school was just too much of a strain for many families, but for my father educating his children had almost the same importance as feeding and clothing us. I remember one day when the regular routine of our school life was threatened."
SYNOPSIS: Miss Fordwich leaves John-Boy in charge of the school when she learns that her sister has been in an accident. John goes to the board meeting to find a substitute teacher and at the last minute, they find a young inexperienced woman from New York, Miss Megan Pollard who is willing to do the job. John offers her free room and board at the Waltons, as they are not able to pay her very much. John-Boy picks her up at the bus station. Grandma can't tell is she is old trying to look young or young trying to look old. She moves into John-Boy's room and immediately creates a barrier between herself and the family with the door locked and eating meals in her room. At school, she changes the schedule and has very little tolerance for tardiness or misbehaving. Her style of teaching causes upset in the classroom and many students drop out from school. The school board has another meeting to try and calm parents' concerns. When John tries to talk to Miss Pollard, she offers her resignation but still needing a teacher for the school, he doesn't want to accept. After John-Boy asks, Miss Pollard to read his latest rejected story submission she states that she was embarrassed for him. She suggests that he study the Essays of a serious writer like Emerson but the advice has the opposite effect. John-Boy now knows more clearly than ever that he needs to write about feelings and emotions. His words strike a chord with her. Obviously, she has kept a distance from her emotions since the passing of her revered father who was a respected educator.
QUESTIONS: What was Megan doing in her room? What did Megan admit to Olivia? What was Megan really trying to do?
EPILOGUE: "Ben's own personal kite won Second Prize that day, the other three Waltons finished, as they say, "out of the money", but nobody cared. In due time Miss Hunter came back, and although everybody was glad to see her there were tears shed at the thought of losing Miss Pollard. We had learned to know and to love her, and we were all the richer for the time she had spent with us. I still have that collection of Emerson's essays on my desk, and whenever I open its pages I'm carried back again to those Depression years on Walton's Mountain and the sound of those voices of the past."
MY THOUGHTS: I like this episode because it reminded me off some of the teachers I had when I was growing up. Most of my teachers were like the first Megan who really didn't care about the students as they did their own agenda. I give this episode 8 weasel stars.
PROLOGUE: "When I was growing up on Walton's Mountain in those years of the great Depression, for me and my brothers and sisters it was a time of making do with the little there was. A time of stretching a nickel until it bought a dime's worth, often a time of doing without. In such times, keeping children in school was just too much of a strain for many families, but for my father educating his children had almost the same importance as feeding and clothing us. I remember one day when the regular routine of our school life was threatened."
SYNOPSIS: Miss Fordwich leaves John-Boy in charge of the school when she learns that her sister has been in an accident. John goes to the board meeting to find a substitute teacher and at the last minute, they find a young inexperienced woman from New York, Miss Megan Pollard who is willing to do the job. John offers her free room and board at the Waltons, as they are not able to pay her very much. John-Boy picks her up at the bus station. Grandma can't tell is she is old trying to look young or young trying to look old. She moves into John-Boy's room and immediately creates a barrier between herself and the family with the door locked and eating meals in her room. At school, she changes the schedule and has very little tolerance for tardiness or misbehaving. Her style of teaching causes upset in the classroom and many students drop out from school. The school board has another meeting to try and calm parents' concerns. When John tries to talk to Miss Pollard, she offers her resignation but still needing a teacher for the school, he doesn't want to accept. After John-Boy asks, Miss Pollard to read his latest rejected story submission she states that she was embarrassed for him. She suggests that he study the Essays of a serious writer like Emerson but the advice has the opposite effect. John-Boy now knows more clearly than ever that he needs to write about feelings and emotions. His words strike a chord with her. Obviously, she has kept a distance from her emotions since the passing of her revered father who was a respected educator.
QUESTIONS: What was Megan doing in her room? What did Megan admit to Olivia? What was Megan really trying to do?
EPILOGUE: "Ben's own personal kite won Second Prize that day, the other three Waltons finished, as they say, "out of the money", but nobody cared. In due time Miss Hunter came back, and although everybody was glad to see her there were tears shed at the thought of losing Miss Pollard. We had learned to know and to love her, and we were all the richer for the time she had spent with us. I still have that collection of Emerson's essays on my desk, and whenever I open its pages I'm carried back again to those Depression years on Walton's Mountain and the sound of those voices of the past."
MY THOUGHTS: I like this episode because it reminded me off some of the teachers I had when I was growing up. Most of my teachers were like the first Megan who really didn't care about the students as they did their own agenda. I give this episode 8 weasel stars.