To Sir, with love.
Edward Ricardo Braithwaite (born June 27, 1920) is a Guyanese novelist, writer, teacher, and diplomat, best known for his stories of social conditions and racial discrimination against black people. He was born in Georgetown, Guyana. Braithwaite had a privileged beginning in life: both his parents went to Oxford University and he describes growing up with education, achievement, and parental pride surrounding him. Braithwaite's numerous writings have primarily dealt with the difficulties of being an educated black man. After the war Braithwaite could not find work in his field and, disillusioned, reluctantly took up a job as a schoolteacher in the East End of London. The book To Sir, With Love (1959) was based on his experiences there.
This particular extract acquaints the reader with the main character of an educated black man, who got a job as a teacher in a school for difficult children. Further on, it describes the pupils’ welcome of a new “blackie” teacher, which was far from being a warm one and the three phases in their relationship. Then we are shown the teacher’s attempts to get though to his class and inveigle them into active interest. By the end of the extract we understand that he had failed.
This is a first person narration which I consider to be the best way to represent one’s life experience. This way the reader becomes fully aware of what the character is thinking about and therefore gets to understand his subsequent actions more clearly. It’s also easier to see the problem the character seeks to solve and to catch the message in whole. So, the idea is transparent: how should the teacher act in order to obtain the acknowledgement of his pupils so that to be able to teach them efficiently and why this goal is so difficult to achieve for a black teacher?
As an exposition, I would like to point out this so called “Old Man’s pet scheme” of every student writing a Weekly Review with comment on any subject as long as it concerns with the school. Whatever the principle (the Old Man) would say about improving pupils’ written English, I think he actually had needed to know what his pupils were thinking of everything going round. This might have really helped him to run the school packed mainly with children from dysfunctional families, for I doubt that that time any officially approved teaching program for such institutions would exist.
The development of the plot began after the teacher had read about himself in the reviews. In the narration he uses such words as ‘association’, ’transient’, ‘predecessors’ which prove him to be well educated. But despite this fact he seems to have a lack of self-confidence and that’s why he feels relief after having found out that very little attention had been given to him in the reviews. But also feeling disappointment, he has decided to improve himself as a teacher and to impress his class. But making this plan real turned out to be an undertaking. This is proved by an epithet ‘painful procession’ and metaphors ‘to reach the children through a thick pane of glass’, ‘to take great pains’. But no matter what books on psychology of teaching he read, the class remained ‘remote and uninterested’. The teacher believed that the reason for that was that the pupils hadn’t considered a new ‘blackie’ teacher to be permanent.
So, the first phase of their relationship started and it was called the ‘silent treatment’ which indicates the absence of pupils’ enthusiasm. The author uses a simile here ‘ and if the interest was not required for the task in front of them would sit and stare at me with the same careful patient attention a birdwatcher devotes to a rare feathered visitor…’. Summing it all up he calls it ‘conspiracy of indifference’.
The second phase turned out to be noisy. When the teacher had to speak or read a lot during the lesson some one would make a loud bang with a lid of their desk. To indicate his great displeasure the author calls the child who had done it a ‘culprit’ which is surely a hyperbole. The teacher’s conviction that he could do nothing about it and therefore had to bear it ‘with as much show of aplomb’ seems to me to be a feature of his week personality.
The last ‘bleeding’ phase appears quite unacceptable and incomprehensible to me. If I were a teacher I would have not tolerated swearing during my lesson and would have at least called the class to order or set a couple of detentions. But what did the teacher do? He just ran for it and was found in the library in a very pitiful condition reveling in his tremendeous misfortune of having such vicious children for a class. But what has he expected? They are only children after all.
I believe, being black or white doesn’t matter in this case. You are a teacher and you are a priori in charge. So it’s just up to you what kind of figure you cut in front of your pupils. I hope that in the end the teacher has understood that and gathered strength to master the class whether by inspiring fear (which seams very unlikely) whether by obtaining their love.

Code of a Good Teacher.
Teachers are important and make a difference. The quality of teaching is a crucial factor in promoting effective learning in schools and universities. Effective teaching requires individuals who are academically able and who care about the well-being of children and youth and who work in a shared and collegial way with other staff.
I believe if you have chosen to become a teacher you should follow one general rule: you love your role, you love being with your students and you couldn't imagine doing anything else. You were meant to teach, you know this in your heart. I think the teacher should also be patient and know that little steps in learning go a long way.
When it comes to the efficiency, I think, the direct effect of good teaching on pupils is difficult to assess, as relating ‘good teaching’ directly to higher attainment in pupils is almost impossible to verify. However, here are my attempts to analyse what constitutes a ‘good teacher’. The following points seem to me to have an impact on pupils:
The good teacher must
-be highly knowledgeable and up to date in their subject area, but do not pretend to know it all, willing to learn from pupils.
-resourceful and positive and adopt a problem-solving approach
-creative and imaginative and have an open attitude to change
-systematic and well organised, focused, determined and hardworking
-demonstrate empathy and fairness, are caring and approachable.
These points might seem mediocre but I believe them to help the teacher to encourage pupils to think, to make connections, to practise and reinforce, to learn from other learners and to feel that if they make mistakes they will not be ridiculed or treated negatively.
It is very difficult to point out a good teacher’s demands from pupils or students of different age groups but if I were a teacher I would want my class to follow these general rules:
-not to be late
-to show respect to me and to other students
-not to be afraid to ask me questions
-to keep their bad behavior and low spirits out of my classroom but not to forget to take their homework done with them.
I believe these simple- to-follow rules to help the teacher to be viewed as “easy going”, “relaxed”, with an “open” manner and to bring a relaxed atmosphere to the classroom which I’m sure is the best for successful teaching.

Into the Wild

When I was reading this passage I could easily imagine all the beauty of the wild American West. And I also believe that I’ve got the author’s point. In his opinion, youth is exactly the right time for a person to get some adventure experience, which includes escaping “routine” city life. He suggests that one should go into the wild in order to enjoy the marvelous sceneries that God has placed around to discover, and to do things which one may previously never have thought of doing.
It has been mentioned that a lot of people live unhappy lives. The reason for that is that they are too accustomed to security, conformity and conservatism. This all seems to be very damaging to the adventurous spirit of a person, which the author believes to be vital for human. But this is what I disagree with.
In my opinion you don’t have to avoid the community to experience life. It’s ok if you are attracted with a bit of adventure but is it worth of giving up your family or your friends or your love or even your favourite job? I believe that things like hiking (in company, which seems more attractive to me than roaming around the mountains alone) or traveling are able to satisfy your need of some adventurous activity. The youth is a period when you lay the foundation of your future life and it appears to me to be a waste to spend this precious time being nomadic.
So to sum up, I would like to say that the author seems to have been deprived of all those things I wrote above of and he decided to find out what else life can provide him with after his escaping into the wild.