Vivian Paine
Sitting near the window in this room I have caught a cold because there's a hole in it. Well life is like that, you have to pay for your pleasure, with cash or otherwise.
Fifth Row Last Seat
This school is run like a Army. The least little thing he (McHaber) get excited. He better watch his step, after all I pay his sallary with taxes!
Tax Payer
Linda Rosensex pot, Alice Blakestuck up, and you like Joe Feroni, he's just asking for attention.
Neglected
You're lucky you're a women teacher, if it was a man he would of walked into something he didn't see coming his way, with a women my temper is controlled but a man doesn't last long. (This is the last time I am writting!)
Dont call the Roll so early.
Late Bird
In the past I always looked forward to my English classes with regret but when I entered your room, low and behold, I saw your cheerful countenence standing in front of the class & I got really interested in the subject. You seem to mean it when you smile.
A Bashful Nobody
Homer is not a very good writer.
Reader
Everybody is always picking on me because of prejudice and that goes for everybody. Mr. Machabe really has it in for me just because I am color. I have allready fill a complain to Dr. Clark.
Edward Williams, Esq.
Clean up the slums! Before you go to the moon! And stop the Atomb Bomb! Before its too late! As far as school, without us there could be no school, ha-ha! And no futures!
Lou Martin
How about a date? I'll fix you up like you never had it before.
Loverboy
Throw out myths. Throw out old teachers and put in new. Throw down this delapidated school and build a clean one, more moderner, like my other was. With Loud Speakers in every class room where they told you over the Loud Speaker about personal hygene and forest conservation and things like that even if it came in the middle of a lesson. With telephones inside the rooms where if a teacher forgot a pencil she could call up to find out if it's there and later go get it. The traffic in the halls was more roomier and the cafeteria wasn't in the basement. You could sit down and eat. But I couldn't stay.
Stander
Don't start up with me!
There is one thing you shouldn't do and that is look so beautiful. You distract the attention of Lou and me very much and causes us to pass notes while you talk.
Anonimus
Is it possible to change my seat to next to Linda Rosen because of my eyesight?
Frank Allen
What makes you think you're something? You're only a female and I can't stand females. I got enough trouble at home I don't need school.
Rusty
You're a good teacher except for the rotten books you have to teach like the Oddissy. I wouldn't give it to a dog to read.
Disgusted
I suggest you and other teachers get a raise in salary so they can live right. I'm sorry I talk out of turn during your teaching, I admit it.
Loudmouth
Parents are too pushy.
Doodlebug
I want to thank you for giving me your time after school, for encouraging me to write, for trying. But with 40 others in the class, whose problems are so different, I realize how little you can do, and I feel we are both wasted.
Elizabeth Ellis
Teach more interesting stories that are hopeful. How in Pygmalian and Galatea the statue got human for the marriage.
Yours for Happy Endings
I am not a good penman but I must tell some one. I put this in the Suggestion Box for the record. Today is my birthday. Happy Birthday!
Me
18. You Still Teaching?
INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION
FROM: 508
TO: 304
Dear Syl
I'm returning window-pole. Thanks.
Just now, a former student dropped in to see me. "You still teaching?" he asked. Turns out he's making more money than you and I together, playing saxophone in a band. Flunked English, I think. His PPP wasn't so hot, either. Why didn't they give me piano lessons? Why did I ever learn to read?
It must be Indian summer that's making me so droopyor the quiz on Hamlet I've been marking. Sample: "Mr. Hamlet, Sr. appears to Mr. Hamlet, Jr. as a dead ghost and bids him revenge."
Bea
INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION
FROM: 304
TO: 508
Dear Bea I've been wading through a pile of "Due before 3" mimeosbut now at last I know what to do with them: into the wastebasket! I'm also hep to the jargon. I know that "illustrative material" means magazine covers, "enriched curriculum" means teaching "who and whom," and that "All evaluation of students should be predicated upon initial goals and grade level expectations" means if a kid shows up, pass him. Right?
I'm a bit nervous about Bester's visit. He tells me he plans to "drop in" again, and suggests that this time I do not give "a written lesson on friendship" (!)
Would you let me know what you think of the enclosed lesson plan on book reports? I wish I'd had real training instead of a few Fed courses and six months of pupil-teaching. I feel so inadequate!
Are there any compensations?
Syl
INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION
FROM: 508
TO: 304
Of course there are! I invite you to visit my Honors class in Shakespeare, or my Creative Writing classyou wouldn't believe you were in the same school. Actually these kids would do well on their own. To me there are greater compensations when a slow student glimpses an idea, when an apathetic or hostile kid raises a faltering hand.
Don't underestimate Bester. Behind the pedagese language is a man who knows all about teaching; you would do well to attend to what he says when he comes to observe you.
Your lesson plan is excellentexcept for the Emily Dickinson line: "There is no frigate like a book." The sentiment is lovely, the quotation is aptonly trouble is the word "frigate." Just try to say it in classand your lesson is over.
Bea