![]() ![]() Originally published in 1964, I was delighted to discover Kaufman had fought for and won the right to publish her book in the atypical form she desired. Surprisingly, all of Up the Down Staircase is formatted as pieces of communication, not paragraphs: Sylvia’s letters to her friend Ellen, intraschool communications to other teachers, circulars from the principal or his assistant, bits of students’ assignments or their notes from Sylvia’s suggestion box, and notes from the Board of Education are some examples. We know this story: overworked teachers, students who don’t care, a draconian administration and disorganized Board of Education. ![]() ![]() The novel is about Sylvia and her first year teaching high school English and home room in a New York City public school. But everything in the novel is invented, except a few directives from the Board of Education, which I had to tone down for credibility.” In it, she notes, “Some reviewers paid me the ultimate compliment: They thought I had merely collected and arranged the material in the book. My copy of Up the Down Staircase was republished in 1991 with an introduction by Kaufman. The title refers to a note Sylvia receives about her student being punished for going “up the down staircase.” ![]()
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