Sylvia Barrett arrives at New York City’s Calvin Coolidge High fresh from earning literature degrees at Hunter College and eager to shape young minds. Instead she encounters broken windows, a lack of supplies, a stifling bureaucracy, and students with no interest in Chaucer. Her bumpy yet ultimately rewarding journey is narrated through an extraordinary collection of correspondence—sternly worded yet nonsensical administrative memos, furtive notes of wisdom from teacher to teacher, “polio consent slips,” and student homework assignments that unwittingly speak from the heart. An instant bestseller when it was first published in 1964, Up the Down Staircase remains as poignant, devastating, laugh-out-loud funny, and relevant today as ever. It timelessly depicts a beleaguered public school system redeemed by teachers who love to teach and students who long to be recognized. “[A] classic. . . . Shot through with despair and hopefulness, violence and levity. . . . A stunningly accurate portrait of life in an urban school.” — The New York Times “The most enduring account we have of teachers’ lives. . . . Empathetic and aware.” — The New Yorker  “The seminal book on the hardships and joys of teaching.” — The New York Times   “Easily the most popular novel about U.S. public schools in history.” — Time Magazine   “Merely the most excellent and truthful picture of a contemporary American teacher’s life that we are likely to have for a long time to come.” —Life Magazine Bel Kaufman was an author and schoolteacher. Born in Berlin in 1911, she spent her childhood in Odessa and emigrated with her family to the Bronx when she was twelve. Her grandfather was the Yiddish humorist Sholem Aleichem. In addition to Up the Down Staircase , she is also the author of the novel Love, Etc . She died in 2014. Hi, teach!   Looka her ! She's a teacher?   Who she?   Is this 304? Are you Mr. Barringer?   No. I'm Miss Barrett.   I'm supposed to have Mr. Barringer.   I'm Miss Barrett.   You the teacher? You so young.   Hey she's cute! Hey, teach, can I be in your class?   Please don't block the doorway. Please come in.   Good afternoon, Miss Barnet.   Miss Barrett. My name is on the blackboard. Good morning.   0, no! A dame for homeroom?   You want I should slug him, teach?   Is this homeroom period?   Yes. Sit down, please.   I don't belong here.   We gonna have you all term? Are you a regular or a sub?   There's not enough chairs!   Take any seat at all.   Hey, where do we sit?   Is this 309?   Someone swiped the pass. Can I have a pass?   What's your name?   My name is on the board.   I can't read your writing.   I gotta go to the nurse. I'm dying.   Don't believe him, teach. He ain't dying!   Can I sharpen my pencil in the office?   Why don't you leave the teacher alone, you bums?   Can we sit on the radiator? That's what we did last term.   Hi, teach! You the homeroom?   Pipe down, you morons! Don't you see the teacher's trying to say something?   Please sit down. I'd like to—   Hey, the bell just rung!   How come Mrs. Singer's not here? She was in this room last term.   When do we go home?   The first day of school, he wants to go home already!   That bell is your signal to come to order. Will you please—   Can I have a pass to a drink of water?   You want me to alphabetize for you?   What room is this?   This is room 304. My name is on the board: Miss Barrett. I'll have you for homeroom all term, and I hope to meet some of you in my English classes. Now, someone once said that first impressions—   English! No wonder!   Who needs it?   You give homework?   First impressions, they say, are lasting. What do we base our first—Yes? Do you belong in this class?   No. Mr. McHabe wants Ferone right away.   Who?   McHabe.   Whom does he want?   Joe Ferone.   Is Joe Ferone here?   Him? That's a laugh!   He'll show up when he feels like it.   Put down that window-pole, please. We all know that first impressions—Yes?   Is this 304?   Yes. You're late.   I'm not late. I'm absent.   You are?   I was absent all last term.   Well-sit down.   I can't. I'm dropping out. You're supposed to sign my Book   Clearance from last term.   Do you owe any books?   I'm not on the Blacklist! That's a yellow slip. This here is a green!   Hey, isn't the pass back yet?   Quit your shoving!   He started it, teach! I'd like you to come to order, please. I'm afraid we won’t have time for the discussion on first impressions I had planned. I'm passing out—   Hey, she's passing out!   Give her air!   —Delaney cards. You are to fill them out at once while I take attendance from the Roll Book. Standees—line up in back of the room; you may lean on the wall to write. Print, in ink , your last name first, your parent's name, your date of bir