Pupils’ Letters from the Suggestion box

Bel Kaufman

UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE

Lead-in

1. Which has been the most important learning in your life – those from your non-school education or from your schooling?

2. What are the main functions of school (intellectual, political and civic, social, economic, etc)?

3. What are the characteristics of an ‘effective school’ (a school in which learning for all students maximized; one in which teachers are able to get students engaged in academic tasks; a school with high ‘can-do’ expectations; high degree of colleagueship, etc).

4. How important is it to you to know what other people will think about you as a teacher?

5. There are a lot of definitions of ‘creativity’. What is ‘creativity’ in the school context? Are schools and creativity contradictory terms? Why do we need to incorporate creativity into our educational system?

 

UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE

By Bel Kaufman

    The extracts given bellow are from Bel Kaufman’s semi-biographical novel "Up the Down Staircase". The book shows the American educational system from the inside. It is ‘a cry from the teacher’s heart’, as the writer puts it. The novel is about an idealistic young honors college graduate who becomes an English teacher, hoping to share her love of classic literature and writing with her students. However, her idealism is quickly snuffed out by the gritty realities of her colleagues and students who populate the novel's fictional inner-city high school. She writes letters to Ellen, her college friends, about her teaching experience.

Those Who Can’t

Dear Ellen,

Congratulations on the baby's new tooth. Soon there is bound to be another tooth and another and another, and before you know it, little Suzie will start going to school, and her troubles will just begin.

Though I hope that by the time she gets into the public high school system, things will be different. At least, they keep promising that things will be different. I'm told that since the recent strike threats, negotiations with the United Federation of Teachers, and greater public interest, we are enjoying "improved conditions." But in the two weeks that I've been here, conditions seem greatly unimproved.

You ask what I am teaching. Hard to say. Professor Winters advised teaching "not the subject but the whole child." The English Syllabus urges "individualization and enrichment" which means giving individual attention to each student to bring out the best in him and enlarge his scope beyond the prescribed work. Better say to "motivate and distribute" books that is, to get students ready and eager to read. All this is easier said than done. In fact, all this is plain impossible.

Many of our kids—though physically mature—can't read beyond 4th or 5th grade level. Their background consists of the simplest comics and thrillers. They've been exposed to some ten years of schooling, yet they don't know what a sentence is.

The books we are required to teach frequently have nothing to do with anything except the fact that they have always been taught, or that there is an oversupply of them, or that some committee or other was asked to come up with some titles.

So far, however, I've been unable to give out any books because of problems having to do with Purloined Book Receipts, Book Labels without Glue, Inaccurate Inventory of Book Room, and Traffic Conditions on the Stairs.

I have let it be a challenge to me: I've been trying to teach without books. [….]

There are a few good, hard-working, patient people like Bea—a childless widow – "Mother Schachter and her cherubs," as the kids say, who manage to teach against insuperable odds; a few brilliantly endowed teachers who – unknown and unsung – work their magic in the classroom; a few who truly love young people.

The rest, it seems to me, have either given up, or are taking it out on the kids. "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach." Like most sayings, this is only half true. Those who can, teach; those who can't – the bitter, the misguided, the failures from other fields – find in the school system an excuse or a refuge.

 

Love, Syl

P. S. Did you know that in New York City high school teachers devote approximately 100 hours a year to homeroom chores? This makes a grand total of over 500,000 hours that they spend on clerical work. That's official school time only; the number of extracurricular hours spent on lesson plans, records, marking papers, and so on is not estimated.

Pupil-Load

Dear Ellen,

[…] I keep looking for clues in whatever the kids say or write. I've even installed a Suggestion Box in my room, in the hope that they will communicate their feelings freely and eventually will learn to trust me.

So far, most of them are still a field of faces, rippling with every wind, but a few are beginning to emerge.

There is Lou Martin, the class comedian, whose forte is facial expressions. No one can look more crest-fallen over unprepared homework: hand clasped to brow, knees buckling, shoulders sagging with remorse, he is a penitent to end all penitents.

No one can look more thirsty when asking for a pass: tongue hanging out, eyes rolling, a death-rattle in the throat, he can barely make it to the water fountain. No one can look more horrified at a wrong answer issuing from his own traitor lips; or more humble; or more bewildered; or more indignant. I know it's not in the syllabus, but I'm afraid I encourage him by laughing. I'm beginning to learn some of their names and to help them – if they would let me. But I am still the Alien and the Foe; I have not passed the test, whatever it is.

I'm a foe to Eddie Williams because my skin is white; to Joe Ferone because I am a teacher; to Carrie Paine because I am attractive. [….]

The frightening thing is their unquestioning acceptance of whatever is taught to them by anyone in front of the room. This has nothing to do with rebellion against authority; they rebel, all right, and loudly. But it doesn't occur to them to think.

There is a premium on conformity, and on silence. Enthusiasm is frowned upon, since it is likely to be noisy. The Admiral had caught a few kids who came to school before class, eager to practice on the typewriters. He issued a manifesto forbidding any students in the building before 8:20 or after 3:00 – outside of school hours, students are "unauthorized."

They are not allowed to remain in a classroom unsupervised by a teacher. They are not allowed to linger in the corridors. They are not allowed to speak without raising a hand. They are not allowed to feel too strongly or to laugh too loudly. [….]

Communication. If I knew how to reach them, I might be able to teach them. I asked them to write for me what they had covered so far in their high school English, and what they hoped to achieve in my class. Their papers were a revelation: I saw how barren were the years they brought me; I saw how desperately they need me, or someone like me. There aren't enough of us. Yet – with all my eagerness to teach, teaching is the one thing Calvin Coolidge makes all but impossible.

It's so good to have you to write to!

Love, Syl

P. S. Did you know that in New York City there are more than 800 schools, over 86 high schools, and about one million pupils? And that out of every 100 children who start school, only 15 go on to receive a college diploma? For most, this is all the education they'll ever get.

As far as marks

1. As far as marks, you can either better yourself or become lower. Marks can be fair or unfair depending on how the student answers questions from the teacher and whether or not the teacher asks the questions a student can answer.

Harry A. Kagan

(The Students Choice)

2. Teachers too stingy with the marks and unfair in dishing them out. Questions are too prejudiced and tests are too hard.

Edward Williams, Esq.

3. Do away with them, after all we can get along in our social life without marks.

Linda Rosen

4. Marks are important because for colleges or jobs they want your average and the average for the subject is made up of marks and the average for the term is made up of the average of the different subjects and the average for all terms is what they want.

Crammer

5. I think class discussion should be counted and not tests because you can say what you really think and not what they want you to say.

Carole Blanca

6. Marks encourage us to cheat though I personally don't.

Honest Abe

7. Exams show more the paper and not the individual.

Unofficial Suggestions

Semuel Bester, Chairman of the English Language Arts Department, sat in at Sylvia’s lesson. For a school authorities he wrote a formal Observation report. To Sylvia he gave a list of unofficial suggestions:

[…] 1. Relating questions to the pupils' own experiences is first rate, but don't let them run away with you. They often do it to delay or avoid a lesson. […]

2. Don't allow one student (Kagan?) to monopolize the discussion. Call on the non-volunteers too.

3. Always ask the question first; then only call on a student by name, thus engaging the whole class in thinking. Avoid elliptical, loaded or vague questions, such as: "How do you feel about this poem?" […]

4. Your unfailing courtesy to the students is first rate. A teacher is frequently the only adult in the pupil's environment who treats him with respect. […]

5. Enthusiasm is contagious. I'm glad you're not ashamed to show you are moved by emotion or excited by an idea. […]

    6. The less a teacher talks the better the teacher. Don't feed them; elicit from them. Learning is a process of mutual discovery for teacher and pupil. Keep an open mind to their unexpected responses. […]

    7. Don't allow the lesson to end on the wrong note. […]

    8. Your quick praise of pupil effort and your genuine interest in what they say are first rate! It's fine for the girls to emulate you and for the boys to try to please you. But there are certain hazards in looking too attractive.

There is no question in my mind but that you are a born teacher.

Samuel Bester

Reading.

I. SKIMMING

1. Look at the title of the novel by B. Kaufman and say what you think the text is going to be about?

2. Glance through the passages from the novel Up the Down Staircase by B. Kaufman to check or correct your predictions.

3. Read the given extract to find the answers to these questions as quickly as possible.

1. Why does Sylvia question (What makes Sylvia doubt) the possibility of great changes in the public high school system in the near future?

2. What does the English syllabus induces? (What aim does the English syllabus set the teacher?)

3. What causes difficulties in the teacher’s attempt to imbue the pupils with love of literature?

III. FOCUS ON VOCABULARY

VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT

DICTIONARY SKILLS

A permanent job

Physical exercise

PHRASAL VERBS

III. GRAMMAR

SPOT THE ERROR

V. SPEAKING

Bel Kaufman

UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE

Lead-in

1. Which has been the most important learning in your life – those from your non-school education or from your schooling?

2. What are the main functions of school (intellectual, political and civic, social, economic, etc)?

3. What are the characteristics of an ‘effective school’ (a school in which learning for all students maximized; one in which teachers are able to get students engaged in academic tasks; a school with high ‘can-do’ expectations; high degree of colleagueship, etc).

4. How important is it to you to know what other people will think about you as a teacher?

5. There are a lot of definitions of ‘creativity’. What is ‘creativity’ in the school context? Are schools and creativity contradictory terms? Why do we need to incorporate creativity into our educational system?

 

UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE

By Bel Kaufman

    The extracts given bellow are from Bel Kaufman’s semi-biographical novel "Up the Down Staircase". The book shows the American educational system from the inside. It is ‘a cry from the teacher’s heart’, as the writer puts it. The novel is about an idealistic young honors college graduate who becomes an English teacher, hoping to share her love of classic literature and writing with her students. However, her idealism is quickly snuffed out by the gritty realities of her colleagues and students who populate the novel's fictional inner-city high school. She writes letters to Ellen, her college friends, about her teaching experience.

Those Who Can’t

Dear Ellen,

Congratulations on the baby's new tooth. Soon there is bound to be another tooth and another and another, and before you know it, little Suzie will start going to school, and her troubles will just begin.

Though I hope that by the time she gets into the public high school system, things will be different. At least, they keep promising that things will be different. I'm told that since the recent strike threats, negotiations with the United Federation of Teachers, and greater public interest, we are enjoying "improved conditions." But in the two weeks that I've been here, conditions seem greatly unimproved.

You ask what I am teaching. Hard to say. Professor Winters advised teaching "not the subject but the whole child." The English Syllabus urges "individualization and enrichment" which means giving individual attention to each student to bring out the best in him and enlarge his scope beyond the prescribed work. Better say to "motivate and distribute" books that is, to get students ready and eager to read. All this is easier said than done. In fact, all this is plain impossible.

Many of our kids—though physically mature—can't read beyond 4th or 5th grade level. Their background consists of the simplest comics and thrillers. They've been exposed to some ten years of schooling, yet they don't know what a sentence is.

The books we are required to teach frequently have nothing to do with anything except the fact that they have always been taught, or that there is an oversupply of them, or that some committee or other was asked to come up with some titles.

So far, however, I've been unable to give out any books because of problems having to do with Purloined Book Receipts, Book Labels without Glue, Inaccurate Inventory of Book Room, and Traffic Conditions on the Stairs.

I have let it be a challenge to me: I've been trying to teach without books. [….]

There are a few good, hard-working, patient people like Bea—a childless widow – "Mother Schachter and her cherubs," as the kids say, who manage to teach against insuperable odds; a few brilliantly endowed teachers who – unknown and unsung – work their magic in the classroom; a few who truly love young people.

The rest, it seems to me, have either given up, or are taking it out on the kids. "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach." Like most sayings, this is only half true. Those who can, teach; those who can't – the bitter, the misguided, the failures from other fields – find in the school system an excuse or a refuge.

 

Love, Syl

P. S. Did you know that in New York City high school teachers devote approximately 100 hours a year to homeroom chores? This makes a grand total of over 500,000 hours that they spend on clerical work. That's official school time only; the number of extracurricular hours spent on lesson plans, records, marking papers, and so on is not estimated.

Pupil-Load

Dear Ellen,

[…] I keep looking for clues in whatever the kids say or write. I've even installed a Suggestion Box in my room, in the hope that they will communicate their feelings freely and eventually will learn to trust me.

So far, most of them are still a field of faces, rippling with every wind, but a few are beginning to emerge.

There is Lou Martin, the class comedian, whose forte is facial expressions. No one can look more crest-fallen over unprepared homework: hand clasped to brow, knees buckling, shoulders sagging with remorse, he is a penitent to end all penitents.

No one can look more thirsty when asking for a pass: tongue hanging out, eyes rolling, a death-rattle in the throat, he can barely make it to the water fountain. No one can look more horrified at a wrong answer issuing from his own traitor lips; or more humble; or more bewildered; or more indignant. I know it's not in the syllabus, but I'm afraid I encourage him by laughing. I'm beginning to learn some of their names and to help them – if they would let me. But I am still the Alien and the Foe; I have not passed the test, whatever it is.

I'm a foe to Eddie Williams because my skin is white; to Joe Ferone because I am a teacher; to Carrie Paine because I am attractive. [….]

The frightening thing is their unquestioning acceptance of whatever is taught to them by anyone in front of the room. This has nothing to do with rebellion against authority; they rebel, all right, and loudly. But it doesn't occur to them to think.

There is a premium on conformity, and on silence. Enthusiasm is frowned upon, since it is likely to be noisy. The Admiral had caught a few kids who came to school before class, eager to practice on the typewriters. He issued a manifesto forbidding any students in the building before 8:20 or after 3:00 – outside of school hours, students are "unauthorized."

They are not allowed to remain in a classroom unsupervised by a teacher. They are not allowed to linger in the corridors. They are not allowed to speak without raising a hand. They are not allowed to feel too strongly or to laugh too loudly. [….]

Communication. If I knew how to reach them, I might be able to teach them. I asked them to write for me what they had covered so far in their high school English, and what they hoped to achieve in my class. Their papers were a revelation: I saw how barren were the years they brought me; I saw how desperately they need me, or someone like me. There aren't enough of us. Yet – with all my eagerness to teach, teaching is the one thing Calvin Coolidge makes all but impossible.

It's so good to have you to write to!

Love, Syl

P. S. Did you know that in New York City there are more than 800 schools, over 86 high schools, and about one million pupils? And that out of every 100 children who start school, only 15 go on to receive a college diploma? For most, this is all the education they'll ever get.

Pupils’ Letters from the Suggestion box

1. In these "distressful times" when any day the whole world can just as soon "blow up" I enjoy "poetry". The way your tone of voices make it sound in changing it to sadness or happiness or whatever it is suited for, depending on the "poem". I went to the school "library" to look for more "Frost" but it was closed.

Chas. H. Robbins

2. I don't like the way you read, too emoting, and over our heads.

 Yr Emeny

3. You gave me the courage to read a book.

Reader

4. Don't ever change! There is a pleasing way in your manner of dressing (red suit) and shape. With you I could spend a whole day with nothing but English.

A Bashful Nobody

5. I never in my life used to have use for poems but when you read it aloud it makes the words come true. If everyone would read it the way you do no one would be left hating poems. Can you recommend another poem?

Jose Rodriguez

6. What I like about you is you're brainy. In a nice way. I wish I could have you always but have to quit and go to work so must say a sincere goodbye.

Dropout

7. I suggest more quiet classrooms because I like to sleep a lot.

Dead To The World

8. Don't be so kind-hearted because people take advantage. For instants, when I didn't do my homework and you gave me a break by letting me hand it in tomorrow, I felt I was a big shot and didn't have to do things till the last moment. Don't worry, I broke out of it very fast but with someone else it might have been bad for you. Well, don't take it so hard.

9. It is my considerable opinion that you are very well qualified. No matter how boring the lesson you always make it interesting. I suggest you continue your enjoyable and educational teachings.

Harry A. Kagan

(The Students Choice)

10. You really made me get to the bottom of Julius Caesar.

Stander

11. You are the most understanding person I ever knew and the best English teacher I ever had, and that includes other subjects. This comes from the heart and not the mouth.

Carole Blanca

12. Teachers are ruining America.

Zero

As far as marks

1. As far as marks, you can either better yourself or become lower. Marks can be fair or unfair depending on how the student answers questions from the teacher and whether or not the teacher asks the questions a student can answer.

Harry A. Kagan

(The Students Choice)

2. Teachers too stingy with the marks and unfair in dishing them out. Questions are too prejudiced and tests are too hard.

Edward Williams, Esq.

3. Do away with them, after all we can get along in our social life without marks.

Linda Rosen

4. Marks are important because for colleges or jobs they want your average and the average for the subject is made up of marks and the average for the term is made up of the average of the different subjects and the average for all terms is what they want.

Crammer

5. I think class discussion should be counted and not tests because you can say what you really think and not what they want you to say.

Carole Blanca

6. Marks encourage us to cheat though I personally don't.

Honest Abe

7. Exams show more the paper and not the individual.

Unofficial Suggestions

Semuel Bester, Chairman of the English Language Arts Department, sat in at Sylvia’s lesson. For a school authorities he wrote a formal Observation report. To Sylvia he gave a list of unofficial suggestions:

[…] 1. Relating questions to the pupils' own experiences is first rate, but don't let them run away with you. They often do it to delay or avoid a lesson. […]

2. Don't allow one student (Kagan?) to monopolize the discussion. Call on the non-volunteers too.

3. Always ask the question first; then only call on a student by name, thus engaging the whole class in thinking. Avoid elliptical, loaded or vague questions, such as: "How do you feel about this poem?" […]

4. Your unfailing courtesy to the students is first rate. A teacher is frequently the only adult in the pupil's environment who treats him with respect. […]

5. Enthusiasm is contagious. I'm glad you're not ashamed to show you are moved by emotion or excited by an idea. […]

    6. The less a teacher talks the better the teacher. Don't feed them; elicit from them. Learning is a process of mutual discovery for teacher and pupil. Keep an open mind to their unexpected responses. […]

    7. Don't allow the lesson to end on the wrong note. […]

    8. Your quick praise of pupil effort and your genuine interest in what they say are first rate! It's fine for the girls to emulate you and for the boys to try to please you. But there are certain hazards in looking too attractive.

There is no question in my mind but that you are a born teacher.

Samuel Bester

Reading.

I. SKIMMING

1. Look at the title of the novel by B. Kaufman and say what you think the text is going to be about?

2. Glance through the passages from the novel Up the Down Staircase by B. Kaufman to check or correct your predictions.

3. Read the given extract to find the answers to these questions as quickly as possible.

1. Why does Sylvia question (What makes Sylvia doubt) the possibility of great changes in the public high school system in the near future?

2. What does the English syllabus induces? (What aim does the English syllabus set the teacher?)

3. What causes difficulties in the teacher’s attempt to imbue the pupils with love of literature?

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