And the woman who wrote this, whoever she is, isn't any dunce.
Those who failed to meet sales targets were made to stand in the corner wearing a dunce 's hat.
This booby is neither of those tho - the word has also been used to mean dunce since at least the 17th century.
Raven was doubtless an intellectual and was immensely learned, but he was a scientific dunce despite his nature study and biology lessons.
It has been a period of spiritual education once more for the class dunce.