Upthedownstaircase

Annotation
   Bel Kaufman's Up the Down Staircase is one of the best-loved novels of our time. It has been translated into sixteen languages, made into a prize-winning motion picture, and staged as a play at high schools all over the United States; its very title has become part of the American idiom.
   Never before has a novel so compellingly laid bare the inner workings of a metropolitan high school. Up the Down Staircase is the funny and touching story of a committed, idealistic teacher whose dash with school bureaucracy is a timeless lesson for students, teachers, parents--anyone concerned about public education. Bel Kaufman lets her characters speak for themselves through memos, letters, directives from the principal, comments by students, notes between teachers, and papers from desk drawers and wastebaskets, evoking a vivid picture of teachers fighting the good fight against all that stands in the way of good teaching.
[pic]
    • Bel Kaufman. Up The Down Staircase
        o
        o PART I
              ▪ 1. Hi, Teach
              ▪ 2. Let It Be a Challenge
              ▪ 3. From Miss Barrett’s Letterbox
              ▪ 4. Intraschool Communication
              ▪ 5. And Gladly Teche # 1
              ▪ 6. No One Down Here
              ▪ 7. And Gladly Teche # 2
        o PART II
              ▪ 8. From The Calvin Coolidge Clarion
              ▪ 9. Those Who Can’t
              ▪ 10. Faculty Conference Minutes
              ▪ 11. Pupil-Load
              ▪ 12. A Doze of English
              ▪ 13. Enrichment, Etc.
        o PART III
              ▪ 14. Persephone
              ▪ 15. From Miss Barrett’s Wastebasket
              ▪ 16. JJ’s Lament
              ▪ 17. From the Suggestion Box
              ▪ 18. You Still Teaching?
              ▪ 19. The Greek Underground
        o PART IV
              ▪ 20. Life Situation
              ▪ 21. Bulletin Board, Room 304
              ▪ 22. A Probing... [continues]

Read full essay