Up the Down Staircase

Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman

If you visit my other blog (which can be accessed at the top right of my current blog), you will see book reviews of the many books I read. Seeing as my first book was related to teaching, I thought I'd share it on my Bliss blog as well. Enjoy!

Jay and I just returned for another wonderful holiday vacation in Buffalo, NY. This was my third Christmas visiting his family there, and it was by far the best! (Isn't it nice when things continue to get better and better?!)

Uncle Rick and I

If I haven't said this already, I'll say it again: Jay has the most amazing family in the entire world. From the second I met them, I immediately felt as if they were my own family. It's nice to spend a holiday away from my own family and yet still feel completely 'at home' with Jay's. There's no possible way to talk these people up enough, so I'll stop here, but I must add that I've grown
particularly fond of one man in particular - Jay's Uncle Rick.

Uncle Rick and I bonded instantly. While I was working toward finishing my education, I learned that Uncle Rick is a retired teacher. It was love at first sight, really. He was a constant encouragement to me as I struggled with the ups and downs of being a student of education, looking for a job, and then, FINALLY, obtaining my first job. I'm extremely blessed that Jay's family plays such a large role in my life.

Last year, Uncle Rick gave me plaque with the following words:

Let's eat grandma.

Let's eat, grandma.

*

Commas save lives.

Awesome, right? This year, Uncle Rick gave me something a little more...meaningful, powerful, sentimental - okay, this gift was freakin' awesome! He gave me a book I'd never heard of: Bel Kaufman's Up the Down Staircase. It's the story set in the early 1960s about a young woman's new life as a teacher in a large and suffering metropolitan high school. Uncle Rick found me an original copy of the book and also included a DVD of the 1967 film version along with it. This was one of the first inspirational teacher movies that was created.

Uncle Rick explained that he first read this book during his college education (and multiple times since then!), and so instantly the book became even more special to me. I just finished reading it this week. What a wonderful first book to ring in the New Year!

Up the Down Staircase
(click here to purchase)

In a school with a chalk shortage on the first day, more paperwork to fill out than a receptionist, and a janitor who, when teachers request his services, sends news that, "There's no janitor down here in the basement right now," what's a first year teacher to think about the education system? While I haven't experienced those exact problems during these past few months, I did however find myself relating to Ms. Sylvia Barrett's life in a new school: names to learn, school practices to adapt to, and bell schedules, to name a few. I found a strength in Ms. Barrett's character that only new teachers might pick up on.

Kaufman writes in such a way that she brings readers directly into Ms. Barrett's classroom. Through letters to her friend Ellen, intraschool communications with fellow teachers, and notes from her students' Suggest Box, readers not only see what happens at Calvin Coolidge High School but experience what happens with the teachers and students on a daily basis.

Bel Kaufman is alive and well at 102 years old! Here's a lovely photo of her below. I've included an excerpt from a fabulous article written two-and-a-half years ago: At 100 years old, Ms. Kaufman is still shpritzing jokes, Jewish and otherwise, which is in her genes. Her grandfather was the great Yiddish storyteller Sholem Aleichem, a writer who was able to squeeze heartbreaking humor out of the most threadbare deprivation and wove the bittersweet Tevye stories that became the source for “Fiddler on the Roof.” Click here to view the entire article, "Bel Kaufman: At 100, Still a Teacher, and Quite a Character."

Bel Kaufman at 102 years old
Photo taken from NYTimes.com