Up The Down Staircase

Do you happen to have a basin and a sponge? A rag will do. My clean-up monitor didn't show up and I have to do it all myself!

Mary

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INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION

FROM: P. Barringer, 309

TO: S. Barrett, 304

Sylvia!

If any parents do show up, try to get rid of them fast, and meet me at the usual place—

Paul

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Dear Miss Barett, I am the mother of Edward Williams but I can't come I've got my hands full his father is put away he's mental and it's very hard without more trouble from school. There's a lot of work for him to help out at home so can you let him out earlier?

Mrs. G. Williams

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Dear Miss Barrett,

My daughter Vivian wanted me to come but I have my Monthly Social. You're her favorite subject. She tries to copy you tho what good will it do the way she looks. My other daughter is a completely different type. Please don't let her eat so much sweets, it breaks out on her skin and she gains and looks terrible. I keep telling her but it just goes down the drain.

Sincerely yours,

Elsie Paine

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Does the Board of Education know you let our children read filthy books on the outside like Catcher in the Rye? You should teach the Bible instead, but they outlawed it.

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Dear Miss Barret,

It's not my son's (Lou) fault he failed spelling, he comes from a broken home. When he gets bad marks it only discourages him more and he starts cutting up. He's getting too big for the other lads in his class, so all the teachers said they'll pass him on. After all, it's only spelling.

Mrs. Bess Martin

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My question is who is Linda running around with after school? When I ask she snaps my head off, but I know she runs around. Her father more or less beats her but she still runs around. Her two sisters went bad too after I sacrificed for them, so I'm worried. Can you do something?

Mrs. Lucile Rosen

Dear Miss Barrett,

Alice didn't want me to come. I hoped to see your face to make me feel better. I don't know why she's so moody. I don't know how I failed her.

Mrs. Marian Blake

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My dear Miss Barret,

There was no time to interview you because I was interviewing other teachers. It would have been a pleasure to make the acquaintance of such a lovely teacher like you. Harry A. Kagan, my son, always talks about you very well. I hope you continue to guide him in his career.

Very truly yours,

Alberta Kagan

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Miss B—

I see by my son's work school hasn't changed. I used to hate it too but I know they need an education. I don't understand why Charles got only 68 so far. He needs at least an 85 average to get into the college I picked for him, even though he thinks he doesn't want to go. As a tax payer, please look into it.

Roger Robbins

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Dear Miss Barnet, Thank you for the invite but I can't come to visit you and talk about my son Jose being that I'm on the night shift at the factory besides my day job. His mother can't come neither being dead. I hope you excuse it.

Truly yours

Raymond Rodriguez

34. You’re the Teacher

Nov. 12

Dear Ellen,

Just got home from Open School session—and I must talk to someone!

It was a fiasco, though I did everything I was told to do. I got fresh book jackets from the library to festoon the walls with and had my wardrobe cleaned out. (Why is it only one sneaker is always left on the closet floor? And the ubiquitous, tattered notebook? I found one belonging to one of my homeroom girls, Alice Blake, full of scribbles, doodles, and chaos.) I even made sure that the little flag stuck in the Calvin Coolidge Alma Mater ('Ye loyal sons and daughters'—a substitute for the unlawful hymns) was tilted at the correct angle. (The other day