Arthur's Substitute Teacher Trouble

Arthur's Substitute Teacher Trouble is the second half of the 27th episode of season 1 of the animated children's series Arthur. It originally aired on April 28th, 1997.

Summary
Mr. Ratburn loses his voice and his sister, Miss Rodentia Ratburn, substitutes for him. Her plans for the students include such lessons as reciting the one times table and reading aloud words like "dog" and "cat", and she assigns them no homework. The kids are excited at first about the change in teachers because they're tired of Mr. Ratburn's extremely challenging classwork, but soon they become bored. The students are glad when Mr. Ratburn returns the next day.

Plot
The episode begins with Arthur and Buster carrying a huge stack of books and papers home from school. Arthur begins to complain about how difficult Mr. Ratburn is as a teacher because of the enormous amount of homework he assigns. He goes on to tell how Mr. Ratburn once managed to turn a routine trip to the zoo into class time, much to the dismay of his students. As they continue walking, Buster trips on a crack in the sidewalk and falls into a mud puddle, losing his work. He tells Arthur that he wishes Mr. Ratburn would just disappear sometimes.

During a routine day in class as Mr. Ratburn teaches his students, he begins to show signs of losing his voice. While the kids are at recess, he tries to tell Mr. Haney he won't be able to continue teaching the class, but loses his voice before he can say so. Mr. Haney sends Mr. Ratburn home on sick leave and announces to the class that they will have a substitute teacher until Mr. Ratburn returns, much to the excitement of the students.

Arthur and his friends wonder who the substitute will be, and recall a few past stand-ins they didn't like. First was Mr. Elkin, whose big antlers accidentally knocked several of the kids out of their seats. Another was Mrs. Bofini, whose loud chewing of an apple made it impossible for the kids to concentrate on their work. Then there was Ms. Tremello, who mumbled everything so the students couldn't understand her. She was considered the worst of the three.

Their favorite substitute was Ms. Blank, who apparently never showed up to teach the class. Miss Sweetwater filled in for her, and let the kids color and have snacks all day. Hopeful that Ms. Blank will come back, the kids are horrified when Mr. Haney names their substitute: Miss Rodentia Ratburn, Mr. Ratburn's sister.

After school the kids wonder what Miss Ratburn is like, figuring that since she is Mr. Ratburn's sister she is probably as tough or even tougher than him. The kids begin thinking up ways to get out of class if Miss Ratburn turns out to be as terrible as they fear.

Arthur and his friends imagine Miss Ratburn as a baby in a crib doing calculus while her brother bothers her to spell the word "antediluvian". Then they imagine the two of them as eight-year-olds, eating nails for breakfast (based on Prunella's myths about Mr. Ratburn's dietary habits). The eight-year-old Miss Ratburn says she likes her nails without milk, and screws are her favorite. Arthur and his friends then imagine Miss Ratburn and her brother in college; he teases her that he notified one of her professors of a mistake she made on a final paper, and her grade will be lowered accordingly. Miss Ratburn gets back at her brother with the news that she proved the star he discovered was nothing but gas, and his name will be taken off the Honor Roll. In response, young Mr. Ratburn vows that someday he will show her, by becoming the toughest teacher in the universe. Miss Ratburn disagrees, vowing that she will be even tougher.

The next day, Miss Ratburn arrives, but is surprisingly sweet and cheerful. Rather than doing complicated math like her brother, she instead practices the multiplication tables with the class, only doing the 1x table.

Surprised at how easy her class is, the kids gladly play along. Miss Ratburn does other things such as puppet shows, the seasons, what colors what which color, reciting simple words and phrasing with pictures, etc.

The class enjoys this at first, but are soon bored by the simplicity of their work. Brain gets mad about this, so Miss Ratburn makes things more "difficult" by doing the 2x table. The kids are relieved when class finally ends, and the Brain runs out in a panic. At the treehouse, the kids realize that they actually miss Mr. Ratburn!

The next day, the class awaits another day with Miss Ratburn, knowing they will be bored again. However, Mr. Haney announces that she will not be in because Mr. Ratburn was already better! The class welcomes him back and he immediately gets back to work.

The kids in Miss Sweetwater's class feel bad for the class, but Arthur says he feels sorry for them, seeing that Miss Sweetwater is not much of a challenge, either. Buster remarks how tough their work is, but the boys are happy to be challenged again.

Goofs

 * In Arthur, Buster, and Francine's imagination of Miss Ratburn as a baby, she was seen wearing a disposable diaper, although her brother was wearing a cloth diaper with a pin during Arthur's imagination of him in Arthur's Baby, and cloth diapers were the only diapers in favor in the time when many of the teachers and parents were young children.
 * Also, babies wouldn't know how to use a calculator or have any of those intelligences.
 * The Brain comments that puppetry that Miss Ratburn was doing is babyish, although her brother enjoys puppetry.
 * When Miss Ratburn starts playing the guitar, she is playing with her left hand; but in the next few seconds, she switches to playing it with her right hand.