I read this book circa junior high, so it was a pleasant blast from the past indeed coming across it at a yard sale. The subject matter is very much a case of the more things change, and the narrative technique is the same as Bram Stoker's Dracula (!). At once dated and timeless, hackneyed and witty... Ask any teacher.

In the spirit of every new-to-the-business, green educator, Sylvia Barrett is no different than all the rest. Every first year teacher can claim Up the Down Staircase illustrates his or her career. When Sylvia begins her first term in New York's Calvin Coolidge high school she has nothing short of big dreams and great expectations. Within days she discovers her classes, her students, fellow teachers and the entire school administration are nothing like she imagined. Getting through to the students is an exercise in swimming in quicksand. Getting through to the administration is like screaming into the wind. In both situations Sylvia plods through with humor and grace. What makes this book such a pleasure to read is how the story is communicated. Through "intraschool communications," homework assignments, suggestion box missives, and letters to a friend Sylvia's teaching triumphs and tragedies come to life. ( )

I know this book was hugely successful, but to me it came across as glib, shallow and cliched. Yes, serious things occur, but overall the whole "If I can touch just ONE child" thing is just tired. Maybe it was fresh in 1961. Up the Down Staircase compares unfavorably with another teaching novel I read immediately after: I'm not Complaining by Ruth Adam, a much less idealistic look at teaching in a poor school in industrial England in the 1930s. ( )

I don't think I've ever been able to relate to a character in the way that I related to Sylvia. When you're a teacher, you realize that the hopeful expectations, the unbridled giving of yourself, and the love of your subject matter is constantly in contrast with the never-ending, mundane administrative "to-do" list, the constant bullying of helicopter parents, and the reality that most students don't covet, value, or respect the material that you cherish. A work that is even more relevant now that it was when it was written. ( )

Wow, what a great and unique read!

This is the story of a young, and perhaps idealistic, new teacher in a New York City public high school. We follow the new career Miss Barrett through most of her first year of teaching -- not through a traditional narrative, however, but through various letters, memos, notes, and selections from the "Suggestion Box" she installs in her classroom.

The pace, like the day-to-day routine of Barrett, is delightfully hectic, and occasionally conveys a feeling of disorientation that I'm sure would be quite matched by the confusion of a new faculty member. It is at times screamingly funny, and at others it will almost break your heart.

Most amazing, to me, is how relevant it still seems, even though it was published almost 40 years ago. The more things change, the more they stay the same, I suppose!

The only thing that baffles me is that this book is often advanced as a Young Adult book? Why? I'm sure many teachers wish that their high school students could read a novel like this and come to better understand what it is like to be a teacher -- but the kids in Kaufman's novel wouldn't have and neither will your average teenager. Not to say some wouldn't enjoy its humor and clever construction, but rather that I do not think that can possibly be the best target audience.

While the ending is a bit, shall we say, Hallmark, the sum total of the book is refreshingly realistic, engaging, and fun! What a treat to read. ( )