Gryphon by Charles Baxter
I enjoyed reading this fiction story, it was not at all what I originally expected. I was not sure what the word gryphon even meant, I had never heard of it. Farther into the story on page 40 the substitute was telling a little bit about her background, a short synapse of her life. She had went on to tell how her mother had played in concerts for important people. Looking up gryphon I noticed that it related to instruments, string instruments.
I am also going to take a stab at the fact that this story may be about stereotypes or judging a book by its cover, or even to expect the unexpected. It could even go as far to say that we should not have prejudices based on society's norms. The children believed all substitute teachers were boring and did not know how to teach the lesson, so when they found their teacher to be coming down with something, the class automatically assumed that they would have a very easy day to follow with a sub. Expecting an ordinary substitute teacher, in walks a strange woman wearing things they described as being from "Mars".
She was not in the least ordinary. She picked up on the lesson right away, and from first walking into the room disciplined the children.
I think the moral of the story is that you never know how people are going to be, you never know who may walk through a door in your life. If you assume things in your head and fill yourself with false beliefs, you may never be open to meeting anyone interesting or different.
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