Laurie couldn’t adapt to kindergarten as well as his fellow classmates could and this led to him ultimately lying to his family. The story “Charles” is a piece written by a very talented author, Shirley Jackson. Charles, or Laurie as we come to know him, has been misbehaving in school. Charles is a mischievous and attention-seeking child, and he did not adjust to kindergarten very normally. Going home from school each day was something to almost take note of due to many stories about him. However, Charles performed a few actions at the start of the story that really sunk into Laurie’s mom’s and dad’s mind.
On the third day of school, “Charles bounced a see-saw on to the head of a little girl and made her bleed, and the teacher made him stay inside all during recess”
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“During the third and fourth weeks it looked like a reformation in Charles” (348). This shows that, yes, he was finding new ways of gaining attention while keeping the consequences positive; it was a win-win for him. Another account of Charles changing his ways is when, for over a week, “Charles was the teacher’s helper.” Overall, Charles really kicked his old school life out of his mind and strived to become the best student in his class.
Why was Laurie, or Charles, acting so misbehaved? Well, his transition from home to kindergarten was a hard one for him, since he no longer was the focus of attention. Charles was a bad person during the start of the school year. Laurie’s mother was looking forward to meeting Charles’s mother at a parent-teacher meeting. After realizing he can have attention drawn to him with positive consequences, Charles switched his attitude towards school around and made his class proud. All in all, Charles changed his behavior in school due to his teacher giving him a second chance by being a teacher’s helper, which boosted his confidence in order to make him a wonderful school