The Year of Miss Agnes

"You smell of fish," she said, real mad, with her teeth together." 

When the previous teacher becomes angry at Plasker because he smells of fish, it shows her lack of understanding for the students' culture. Plasker has been helping his father bale fish; it is an important part of their livelihood and village life. The teacher's rage shows that she has failed to overcome the differences between herself and the students, whereas Miss Agnes's indifference to the smell later on shows her capacity to bridge these differences.

"The ones who looked mean from the very first lasted the longest. It was the ones who smiled all the time and pretended to like everything who didn't last." 

Fred explains the challenges of finding a teacher for the village here by analyzing the types of teachers who have previously succeeded there. In describing the teachers using these two categories, she demonstrates the lack of good teaching the students have had. When Miss Agnes arrives, she manages to be both kind and effective—which, as this quote demonstrates, is a novelty for the students. Furthermore, she genuinely does like her students and being part of the village, as she shows when she returns at the end of the book, further differentiating her from these earlier teachers.

"I think she could tell I was still a little mixed up, because she said, 'The English that we speak in England sounds different from the way you speak English here. But it's the same language.' 'Oh, yeah,' I said, and this time I knew what she meant. Like how you can tell when someone is from Nulato or Hughes just because they say their words different." 

Although they are outside the classroom, at Miss Agnes's house, Fred's first lesson with Miss Agnes occurs as she asks about Miss Agnes's background and learns what England is.