To Sir, With Love

Read in English class in fifth year.

Braithwaite, coming off his service with the RAF, where he was a highly trained and respected engineer, finds his race makes his skills unwelcome to prospective employers after his demob. He finds himself teaching in a school in inner-city London in a class of children who are hostile to him and to the learning environment on the whole. Braithwaite treats his young charges with adult dignity and respect, and expects the same from them. The results are, for me, not unexpected: the youths show themselves to be sensitive, intelligent, curious, caring, courageous people. Through the year the new teacher spends with his first class, he encounters bigotry, the disillusionment of fellow teachers, the socio-economic constraints facing his students, and institutional prejudice against these youths and their families and potential.

Quite charming, and surprisingly (unfortunately) timely and contemporary. This is the true story of a man who truly understood what it means to be charged with educating his students, the massive duty a teacher carries. The challenges Braithwaite faced post-WWII resonate today, and the book dates itself only in archaic gender expectations, and a scene in which teacher spars with one of his students during PE and lands a cracking punch.