Tom Sawyer

¹ "Tom Sawyer" was first published in 1876.

² Both in this preface and in his autobiography, Twain assures us that the characters and scenes in the novel are drawn accurately from life, allowing, of course, for the author's license to alter the truth for art's sake.
It should also be noted that Twain refers to the young characters in the book as "schoolmates" here and throughout the book. He uses the same term in his autobiography. Clearly, it is the shared school experiences which link this diverse group of youngsters together who might otherwise be separated by age, social status, and geography.

³ The Story: It's Monday morning. Tom doesn't actually make it to school until the middle of this chapter, which begins by describing the ways Tom tries to avoid going to school, then continues as he meanders to school and carries on an extended conversation with Huck Finn.
Tom's seriousness during his discussion with Huck provides a wonderful contrast to his lackadaisical approach to schoolwork. While Tom the schoolboy spends as little time as possible at his studies, Tom and Huck conduct an intense, almost scholarly discussion over the best remedies for warts. This attention to detail disappears the moment Tom walks inside the schoolroom, clearly due to lack of motivation, not lack of ability.

⁴ The schoolmaster is "throned on high" on his stool in the image of a king or petty tyrant, an unflattering comparison frequently employed in 19th century depictions of schoolmasters. "The drowsy hum of study," referred to a few paragraphs later as "the buzz of study," refers to the students' "conning their lessons," or murmuring them aloud, which was the common practice of the day.
This short introduction to the schoolmaster may not be entirely original; it is close enough to Washington Irving's description of Ichabod Crane in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" to be a conscious paraphrase on Twain's part. Note the similarities in phrasing and imagery to Irving's description: "Ichabod, in pensive mood, sat enthroned on the lofty stool from whence he usually watched all the concerns of his little literary realm. ...[A] kind of buzzing stillness reigned throughout the schoolroom." "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the tales on this site.

⁵ The long blond hair belongs to Becky Thatcher. She just moved into town and Tom, who is smitten, is dying to meet her. Note the detail about the vacant seat, and also note that Tom breaks with his tradition of lying and tells the schoolmaster the real reason he was late, knowing he'll be punished. Tom is very savvy to the schoolmaster's tactics and is scheming to be placed "in shame" on the girl's side of the room next to Becky.

⁶ If this is "the most astounding confession" the schoolmaster has ever heard, he obviously isn't told the truth very often. So much for our illusions about the honest and upright children of the good old days!
A ferule is a ruler the schoolmaster keeeps at the ready for minor offenses. Switches (branches from a neighboring tree) are used to punish more serious infractions. Schoolmasters in many stories come to school with an armful of switches, because, as in this case, quite a few of them are broken in the course of disciplining students.
Note that Tom is required to remove his jacket so he will feel the full effect of his punishment.

⁷ We see two sides of Tom the student in this passage. He's clearly indifferent to his studies in this chapter and throughout the novel, yet Twain implies he is a champion speller and proud of it, because his poor spelling in this scene means that he "yielded up the pewter medal which he had worn with ostentation for months."
We're seeing a glimpse of Twain himself here, who writes in his autobiograpy that he was the top speller in his class and wore the "Good Spelling" medal consistently. The one time he lost the medal was when, he writes, "I left out the first 'r' in 'February' -- but that was to acccommodate a sweetheart. My passion was so strong just at that time that I would have left out the whole alphabet if the word had contained it."

⁸ It seems important that Twain places Tom and Becky in the schoolroom for their first romantic encounter. The classroom imparts an innocence to a scene that could otherwise feel dangerous, even a bit sexually charged. The chaste encounter between Tom and Becky might be tainted if it were set, for instance, in the woods, beside the river, or in an abandoned building. Even without an adult present, the schoolroom, like a church, creates a sense of moral authority and protective safety that both imposes restraints on these two lovestruck children and sanctifies Tom's proposal.

⁹ The Story: This excerpt picks up at the end of CHAPTER X. It's the day after Tom's lunchtime engagement and argument with Becky, when he left school during lunch and didn't return. Tom walks to school knowing that he will be punished.

¹⁰ The news is that there had been a murder the previous night.

¹¹ The school day wasn't dictated by clocks and bells as it is today, so the times when school began and ended varied at the schoolmaster's discretion. It wouldn't be considered unusual for school be let out early on occasion, especially for a good reason.
This less regimented concept of time was in keeping with the rhythm of pre-industrial towns whose lives weren't regulated by the factory whistle. School days ordered by fixed time schedules became more common as urban, industrial centers grew and the world became more attuned to the rhythms of the factory.

¹² The Story: Becky Harper has been out of school for a number of days, to Tom's dismay, which explains his uncharacteristic eagerness to get to school and see if she has returned.

¹³ The Story: Tom, Huck and Joe (a schoolmate) decide to run away and become pirates. Thinking the three are dead, the town holds a funeral service, which ends when the boys sneak into the church and reveal themselves. In CHAPTER XVIII, Tom and Joe walk to school in triumph on the first day after their return.

¹⁴ This short chapter is a conversation between Tom and Aunt Polly during his school lunch break. It's not related to school, but I left it in to preserve the flow of the text.

¹⁵ A middle aged village schoolmaster is always an object of scorn in 19th century fiction. The pay and conditions are so poor that a schoolmaster can only be respected if he is a young man who is in transition to a more respectable profession.

¹⁶ This schoolmaster apparently has no relationship with his students other than when they are reciting lessons or misbehaving. This authoritarian distance is typical in the schoolrooms depicted in 19th century fiction. The exception to this rule usually involves a schoolmaster who is more educated and ambitious than most and feels he has something to offer the students beyond what they find in their textbooks.

¹⁷ "Examination" day is not simply a day when students take final exams. It is a time when families and interested town members gather in the schoolroom to witness the students being "examined," which mainly consists of their answering predetermined questions, reciting memorized passages, and reading original poems and essays. The schoolmaster's increased severity makes sense in this context; he knows that the community will be examining him while he examines the students, so he is anxious that the students perform well.

¹⁸ We learn two things from this passage. One is that the class includes students as old as 20. Since some are younger than Tom, we can assume that the youngest students are 8 or less. (Writing about his classmates in his autobiography, Twain comments, "I remember Andy Fuqua, the oldest pupil -- a man of twenty-five. I remember the youngest pupil, Nannie Owsley, a child of seven.")
The other thing we learn is that the schoolmaster doesn't whip the "biggest boys and young ladies of eighteen and twenty." He doesn't whip the boys who are strong enough to fight back, because, as we find out in a number of other stories, they would fight back. We can probably infer that whipping a female who has reached 18 would be considered an affront to womanhood.

¹⁹ Anyone who holds the notion that children were more respectful and better behaved in the "good old days" should read this passage carefully. The boys are constantly "plotting revenge," hoping to "do the master a mischief." They are not contemplating simple misbehavior; they want to cause the schoolmaster embarassment or harm. The schoolmaster's answer to their deeds is "retribution ... so sweeping and majestic that the boys always retired from the field badly worsted." The image of the boys "retiring from the field" indicates that we are witnessing full scale warfare. Though Twain's language is purposely overblown to add humor to the situation, his point is inescapable: there is no love lost between schoolmaster and students, and each will seize the advantage whenever it presents itself.

²⁰ Tom's humiliating experience with public speaking in school is passed over quickly here. The subject is given fuller treatment in Stephen Crane's story, "Making an Orator," in which the main character is permanently traumatized by his ordeal. The tale can be read on this site.

²¹ Be warned: read the "extracts" from the students' wrting at your own risk. They're purposely dreadful. But be sure to read Twain's NOTE ending the chapter, in which he explains where he found the quoted pieces.