Miss Stacy
Miss Stacy, the first female teacher in Avonlea's history, arrives at the Avonlea school in the autumn following Anne's broken ankle, bringing a breath of fresh air to the conservative rural community. She is a bright, sympathetic young woman with the happy gift of winning and holding the affections of her pupils and bringing out the best that is in them mentally and morally. Anne, who has been laid up for seven weeks after falling off the Barry roof, hears thrilling reports from her schoolmates: Miss Stacy has the loveliest fair curly hair, fascinating eyes, dresses beautifully, and her sleeve puffs are bigger than anybody else's in Avonlea. Every other Friday afternoon she holds recitations where everyone must say a piece or take part in a dialogue, and on alternate Fridays she takes the students to the woods for field days to study ferns, flowers, and birds. She also introduces physical culture exercises every morning and evening. Mrs. Lynde declares she never heard of such goings-on and attributes it all to having a lady teacher, but Anne is convinced she will find Miss Stacy a kindred spirit.
Teaching Philosophy and Methods
Miss Stacy's approach to education is tactful, careful, and broadminded. She leads her class to think, explore, and discover for themselves, encouraging straying from the old beaten paths to a degree that quite shocks Mrs. Lynde and the school trustees, who view all innovations on established methods rather dubiously. She makes her pupils write all their essays as simply as possible, training them to be their own severest critics. When the story club writes melodramatic tales of love and murder, Miss Stacy redirects them: she sometimes has them write a story for training in composition, but she won't let them write anything but what might happen in Avonlea in their own lives, and she criticizes it very sharply and makes them criticize their own work too. Anne initially feels ashamed when she discovers how many faults her compositions have, but Miss Stacy assures her she can learn to write well if she only trains herself to be her own severest critic. Anne also learns from Miss Stacy that short words are much stronger and better than big ones, a lesson that marks a significant shift from her earlier love of flowery language.
Influence on Anne's Academic Ambitions
Miss Stacy's most consequential act is organizing a special class among her advanced students who mean to study for the entrance examination into Queen's Academy. She proposes to give them extra lessons for an hour after school, and she personally visits Green Gables to ask Matthew and Marilla if they would like Anne to join. Anne, who has dreamed of studying for the Entrance for six months but assumed it was useless, is overjoyed. Miss Stacy tells Marilla that Anne is bright and diligent—though Marilla, not wanting to pamper vanity, never repeats the exact praise to Anne. Under Miss Stacy's guidance, Anne throws herself into her studies with renewed purpose. Miss Stacy also catches Anne reading Ben Hur in class when she should be studying Canadian history, and instead of publicly humiliating her, she keeps Anne in at recess and talks to her about the wrongness of wasting time and deceiving her teacher. Anne is shocked to realize her behavior was deceitful, cries bitterly, and promises never to do such a thing again. Miss Stacy forgives her freely and also makes Anne promise not to read any book unless either Miss Stacy or Mrs. Allan thinks it is proper for a girl of her age. When Anne is tempted by a lurid mystery novel lent by Ruby Gillis, her love for Miss Stacy stands the test and she returns it unread, though it is agonizing not to know how it turns out.
Loyalty and Farewell
At the end of the school year, rumors spread that Miss Stacy has been offered a position in her home district and may not return. The Queen's class listens in breathless suspense when she announces her decision: she has thought of taking another school but has decided to come back to Avonlea because she has grown so interested in her pupils that she cannot leave them. She promises to stay and see them through their final year before the Entrance. Moody Spurgeon, never before carried away by his feelings, shouts "Hurrah!" and blushes uncomfortably for a week afterward. Anne, with shining eyes, declares that it would be perfectly dreadful if Miss Stacy didn't come back and that she couldn't have the heart to go on with her studies at all if another teacher came. When the term finally ends and Miss Stacy's rule in Avonlea school closes, Anne and Diana walk home with red eyes and damp handkerchiefs, bearing convincing testimony to the touching nature of Miss Stacy's farewell words. Anne feels she has left the dear old school forever—if she has good luck—and the parting marks the end of an era.
Lasting Impact
Miss Stacy's influence extends far beyond the classroom. She gives Anne a photograph that occupies the place of honor in Anne's room at Green Gables, and Anne makes a sentimental point of keeping fresh flowers on the bracket under it. When Anne wins the Avery scholarship and takes First Class License in one year, it is Miss Stacy's training that has prepared her. Even after Anne decides to give up Redmond College to stay home and teach, she plans to take her Arts course at Green Gables, studying everything she would have at college—a testament to the intellectual ambition Miss Stacy instilled. Miss Stacy represents the progressive, nurturing educator who sees potential in every child and cultivates not just academic knowledge but character, imagination, and a love of learning for its own sake.
