“Up the Down Staircase”

The text under consideration with a very unusual and remarkable title “Up the Down Staircase” is one of the best novels of our time was written by Bel Kaufman, an American author. She worked as a teacher of the English language and literature in a New York high school for 15 years. “Up the Down Staircase” is her first semi-autobiographical novel about an idealistic young English teacher, who is really excited about her future work with children at school. But as it turns out, it’s not so easy to confront severe realities which do not coincide with her expectations.
The given extract describes the experiences of a young high school teacher Sylvia Barret who is dissatisfied with the system of education, but nevertheless, she tries to cope with all those problems and handicaps in children upbringing and acts her own way. She finds her own techniques of teaching. But does she succeed in it? Or is she supported by her colleagues? Or may be she is the only who is worried about these difficulties. In this text the author does not give her own answers on these and other questions giving this opportunity to the readears.
It is a first person narration where the author thoroughly describes her colleagues, students and the general atmosphere at school. Through the whole text we feel author’s believes in finding the way to change the state situation. In order to underline it she uses the phrase “hitch your wagon to a star” and we, readers of these lines want to believe that she will be able aspire such indifferent and apathetic people .
She is considered a very creative person as she offers her pupils different types of class work completely non-typical for the school she works at; Children are proposed to listen to Shakespeare’s sonnet or discuss a very contradictive statements. Strange as it may seem but she succeeds in it.
But the problem is that it bothers just her. And speaking names in this story such as Mr. Winters that, on the one hand, shows his indifference