Editing Miss Lenhart

{{Infobox character
| image      = Miss_lenhart.png
| imagesize  = 200px
| caption    = '
| first_appearance = [[135: Substitute]]
}}

<noinclude>:''For a list of comics, see [[:Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart|Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]].''
:''For the generic Miss Lenhart, see [[Blondie]].''</noinclude>

'''Miss Lenhart''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[xkcd]]. She is the go-to character when [[Randall]] needs a teacher. She has white hair of shoulder length and is a named version of [[Blondie]], like [[Rob]] is a named version of [[Cueball]]. She may or may not represent the same character from comic to comic.

==Name==
Miss Lenhart has only been named twice where she actually appears. The first time she is both drawn and mentioned by name is in [[499: Scantron]], and the only other time (so far by comic 1731) is in [[1050: Forgot Algebra]]. But her name was used before for a not-shown teacher in [[135: Substitute]], which is why it makes sense to call the math teacher in [[263: Certainty]] Miss Lenhart. That would thus make it the first time she appeared as a character in a comic. 

Her family name is again the only thing used in [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]], although there it does not directly say that she is a teacher. While school is mentioned, it is for her children. Thus, the name is first connected directly to the blonde teacher in her fifth "appearance" after she was also drawn in [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]].

Later, her name is used again without her being present, except on the phone in [[704: Principle of Explosion]]. Here, she is Mrs. Lenhart. It is possible that this character is the mother of Miss Lenhart. Or, because she here obviously has a son, she may have been married after she was originally named Miss. This is the second time she has been mentioned to be a mother. Both Blondie and one of the other named Blondie-like characters [[Mrs. Roberts]] are shown to be mothers. In [[2808: Daytime Firefly]], the off-screen character of "{{w|Ms.}} Lenhart" is mentioned in the title text (in an imagined conversation with a male teacher) who could be this main character, if not just one or other of her relatives. 

Her name is mentioned in total six<!-- someone check this +1 change is up-to-date! (As of #2808) --> times. So, the other comics with Miss Lenhart refer to a teacher with her appearance, just like [[Megan]] only has been named a few times but is still used to describe the general dark-haired woman. However, Miss Lenhart must have long blonde hair, so a teacher with her hair in a ponytail, like in [[982: Set Theory]], is not Miss Lenhart but [[Ponytail]], even though the teaching method reminds of the one in [[1724: Proofs]] with Miss Lenhart.

===Math teacher===
There are several cases where Miss Lenhart is described as a math teacher. Her name is used in this context in her first comic [[135: Substitute]], and she is both named and drawn in [[1050: Forgot Algebra]] as a math teacher. She is also teaching mathematics in [[263: Certainty]], [[622: Haiku Proof]], and [[1724: Proofs]]. 

Her career appears to closely follow the trajectory of a public-school Math teacher at either the middle or high school level as teachers become subject specific at that point. Teacher's lounges and substitutes are also features of the North American secondary school system. In [[1519: Venus]] and [[803: Airfoil]] she is seen teaching two non-math science related classes, which is something else that happens in American schools due to a general shortage of qualified STEM teachers. 

In [[1519: Venus]], it is confirmed that Miss Lenhart is one month away from retirement (which is shown to result in taking her teaching duties less seriously. Being forced to teach outside her subject matter expertise (Earth/Environmental Science instead of Math) may have factored into her decision, but regardless, public sector teachers in the United States generally still earn pensions and are able to retire earlier than other workers.

After [[1519: Venus]], we see Miss Lenhart transition to college level material such as [[2028: Complex Numbers]], [[2545: Bayes%27 Theorem]], [[2560: Confounding Variables]] and [[2283: Exa-Exabyte]]. If she did in fact retire early from public secondary school education, it would be possible for her to supplement her pension as an adjunct professor teaching college level science and math courses at a community or state institution of higher education. 

In some early comics, such as [[435: Purity]] and [[599: Apocalypse]], a mathematician looking like Blondie is could possibly be a representation of Miss Lenhart. But so far, they have not been included, as Miss Lenhart as Blondie is not clearly depicted as a teacher (or with name) in these comics.

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