To Sir with Love

E.R. Braithwaite was born in 1912 in British Guyana. After the war, prejudices about
skin color did not allow him to get the job for which his scientific qualifications suited him,
so he decided to work as a school teacher. In 1959, Braithwaite received the Einsfield Wolf
Literary Award for the book «To Sir, with Love», about his work as a teacher at a school in
London's East End. He also is an author of such books as «A Kind of Homecoming», «Paid
Servant», «A Choice of Straws», and «Reluctant Neighbours». His writings are primarily
devoted to the difficulties of being an educated black person, a black social worker, a black
teacher and just a person in inhuman circumstances.
The story is about a black man, who begins teaching at a reform school in London's
East End. Once a week the whole school writes a review, where they can put anything about
their school and teacher. The teacher feels upset that his class writes almost nothing about
him. He tries to be a better teacher, makes any effort to do so, but everything is in vain. One
day a student swears in front of him, and he is so angry that he asks himself why they are
like that.
We have the narrator — a new black teacher, who does all his best to make his pupils
pay attention, and the children — noisy, irritating and uninterested in studying. The
characters are believable, and the whole story makes us feel sympathy towards the narrator.
In this part of the story the author raises a problem of the students' attitude towards
their teacher, especially if he is a black one.
The text is written in the first person, from the point of view of the teacher himself.
The narration is rather simple and sometimes very emotional.
The extract can be logically divided into three parts: the introduction - Weekly
Review, the story development - How the teacher ties to do his best and the climax - How the
students make him mad/upset. There is no outcome of the story, because at the end of it the
narrator is still puzzled and cannot come to the answer why his pupils behave like that.
From the very beginning of the chapter, the author shows us Friday morning in class,
where everyone writes a review. The narrator describes this technique as «pet scheme»,
which is introduced by the headmaster for two reasons: first, «that must in some way
improve his (a pupil's) written English», and second, the teachers «soon get a pretty good
idea what the children think of us». The whole headmaster's speech is represented in one
large paragraph.
 Then goes the development of the story, a summary of events. The narrator finds this
«pet scheme» quite useful for himself. He wants to know what his students think about their
new teacher. However, it turns out that they only noticed that he was black, and that was it
(«...apart from mentioning that they had a new «blackie» teacher, very little attention was
given to me»). After that, he begins to make every effort to become a better teacher for them.
He constantly makes plans for classes, reads «books on the psychology of teaching», uses
illustrations «from the familiar things in their own background», but they still show no
enthusiasm. Then comes «noisy» treatment», how the narrator describes it. The pupils begin
interrupting the lesson, making annoying noises, and so on. The narrator feels «angry and
frustrated».
In this part the author uses different stylistic devices. For example, there is
an idiom «to cut a figure», which means «to create an image», and «to take great pains»,
which means «to try very hard to do something». He also uses a lot of adjectives, which help
to convey the mood of the story: «remote» and «uninterested» about pupils, who paid no
attention for the narrator's efforts, and «angry» and «frustrated» about the narrator. Besides,
we can see a simile: «...sit and stare at me with the same careful patient attention a
birdwatcher devotes to the rare feathered visitor», which is used to make the statement more
emphatic.
Finally, we see the climax of the story. One morning the narrator reads some poetry to
the pupils, and one girl lets «the top of the desk fall», that creates much noise (a
hyperbole — «the noise seemed to reverberate in every part of my being»), then she swears,
and the narrator is offended that he goes to the library, as he describes, «the only place where
I can be alone for a little while». He feels sick because he thinks that by this act they
intended «to display their utter disrespect» for him. At the end of the extract the narrator asks
himself, «Why, oh why did they behave like that? » The repetition of the word «why»
makes his question more emphatic. This whole situation, shown in close-up, with such a
variety of details, makes us understand that the narrator is a very emotional person who
really wants to achieve mutual understanding between himself and his students and who
takes everything to heart.
This story accurately reflects the relationship between a teacher and his students. I
believe that this story should be read by all children and young people so that they realize
how they treat their teachers, despite all the efforts they make to educate them. And then,
perhaps, they will reach an understanding.