You are much appreciated, and it must be a special feeling when you realize that you may have made even a tiny change in a student's life. I know this is just a review, but for any teacher reading these words, thank you for doing what you do. I can see why it has attained classic status. Written in snippets of dialogue, notes, memos and letters, it gives the reader a real feel for what actually goes on inside the classroom, which is probably the same today as it was when this book was written in 1962. Up the Down Staircase was written by one of these teachers, a novel about a young teacher in a New York City high school trying to navigate between the needs of her students and the beaurocracy of the system. The dedication and passion and time expended by these educators is surely undervalued. For me, and later for her, there were a few great teachers who stood out and made learning a desired thing for it's own sake. I was never a teacher, but I was certainly a student, as was my daughter. Well, Bel Kaufman was a Soft Touch for her kids for sure.But boy, did she read the Riot Act to the head honchos.Īs was, historically, that whole early-sixties Camelot back then.īut even if kids still went Up the Down Staircase in their confusion. I got to know the Soft Touches like her among the staff, though often, being an Aspie, I read people wrong. She was so like my home room teacher that year, Miss Fenton, who dared to humanize us kids in that inhuman environment. Well, Bel Kaufman - my polar opposite as a cool-brained adult - stood up against that Rulebook to make it HUMAN. Wow, did I get my act in gear! The Fear of God was put into me. So get this: a green, pampered kid who was too cool for rules ran up against a Cold, Hard High School Rulebook - I was CLOBBERED by it. I was a mess of a kid, looking for a rod and a staff to 'comfort' me some. Mom let me watch TV later than my younger siblings, and she let me do my homework lying down.

(Paul Simon)Īnd that year, 1963, I was Dadless.

I gotta tell you, I for one had been spoiled at home! Kids like me didn’t adjust well sometimes, because we COULDN’T STAND ADULT RULES. When I was thirteen, I think my high school actually had 'down staircases,' (or so it seems to me now in retrospect sixty years after the fact) because I absolutely adored this book as a green freshman.Īnd Kids nowadays should love it - especially if they've matured a bit - cause it shows the modern high school from the POV of a teacher who's on THEIR side.

Up the down staircase book