Up The Down Staircase Page #6

Well, maybe later.

Why do you always say, ''Maybe later''?

Maybe sometime, maybe Thursday,

and there never is a Thursday.

Wasn't this to be our dance?

No.

Not that l know of.

Do you know, you...

You thought that up just this minute,

just now, to avoid dancing with Alice.

ls Miss Barrett refusing me?

l... l have to stay with the punch

till Henrietta comes back.

l think Miss Barrett is avoiding me.

No. l have a telephone.

But it only rings once a week on Sunday

when my mother calls long distance

to remind me of all the recent murders

in the city.

And l have a doorbell, and it works.

l write most evenings, you know that.

And you're always

hunched over your suggestion box.

Do you know what l think?

l think if you actually lived in Kamchatka,

and had never seen

Calvin Coolidge High School,

you would write about

Calvin Coolidge High School.

lf Miss Barrett will excuse me.

Well, did you do it?

Good morning, Alice.

Would you come to my classroom

for a minute at the end of the day?

Where are you supposed to be?

Come in, Alice.

No, come up here. Close the door.

Come closer, Alice.

First of all, thank you for your note.

Suppose... Suppose we go

through it together.

''Dear Mr. Barringer...''

There's nothing wrong

in using circles to dot ''i's'',

but it's considered an affectation.

''Last Sunday,

l took the subway to your stop

''having looked up where you live

on your time card...''

There should be a comma after ''stop''

and a period at the end of the sentence,

and no series of dots.

''l hope you don't mind the presumption...''

Look up the spelling of presumption,

and no dots.

''l walked back...and forth...

Across the street from your house.''

''Back...and forth...''

Oh, Alice, these dots.

Do you know, l think you use them...

l think you use them because it's easier.

lt's easier

than learning correct punctuation.

That's pretty lazy, Alice.

''l thought l saw you in the window,

and my heart was throbbing with this love

''l bear for you...''

No dots, please

and ''throbbing'' is pretty cheap.

And omit ''this''. ''Love'' will be enough.

''l think of you all the time...''

Dot, dot, dot, ''...at night, darkling.''

Now, there is a word, ''darkling'',

but you've misused it here.

And even if you'd used it correctly,

it'd be, literally, pretentious.

''l pray to be worthy of you

and all you stand for.''

Now, the phrase ''all you stand for''

isn't very clear.

What... What do l stand for?

''lf you ever need me to die for you,

l would gladly do so

''like the Lady of Shalott,

only Lancelot didn't know of her love

''and only said, 'She has a lovely face,' and

you do know...'' Dot, dot, dot, ''...now.''

Run-on sentences are pretty popular

just now,

but l can't begin to cope with this one.

l would suggest

that you try to keep away from clichs,

and look up the spelling

of the Lady in Tennyson's

ldylls of the King.

''l didn't think l'd ever have the courage

to write this letter...'' Dot, dot, dot,

''...but when you danced with me,

l knew l had to tell the truth.

''The Beautiful Truth.''

Well, there's no need to capitalize ''Truth'',

nor is there any need

to capitalize ''Beautiful.''

Morning, Alice. Books for us at last.

Miss Barrett, can l talk to you a minute

before homeroom?

l came early especially.

Of course, Alice. What is it?

Syl. Syl!

The ghost walks.

What does that mean?

Dr. Bester is going to observe you

this morning.

But l thought only the department

chairman observed...

Well, sometimes Dr. Bester

likes to drop in himself.

Look, give them a composition to write.

''My Favorite Sport.'' That's a good one.

He'll get bored, and he'll go away.

Okay, thank you.

Alice, do you mind if we have our talk

this afternoon, right after school?

-All right, Miss Barrett.

-Now that we have the new books

l have to have a few minutes

to revise my lesson plan for the day.

All right, class. Class!

ln your seats, please.

Let's fill out these book receipts

as quickly as possible

so we can get on to a story

that's been a favorite of hundreds

of thousands of people for years.

Morning, Dr. Bester.

Do you mind if l observe

for a while, Miss Barrett?

Not at all. l'm sorry, Dr. Bester,

but the extra chairs that l requisitioned

in September still haven't arrived.

Roy, would you give Dr. Bester

your chair, please,

and stand in the back of the room, please?

l'll stand at the back

of the room, Miss Barrett.

Thank you.

Who would like to help me

distribute the books?

Where is Alice Blake? Where is Alice?

l don't know, Miss Barrett.

Well, it's not like Alice to cut.

All right, girls, you help me, please.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles

Dickens. 1812, 1870.

We are not going to talk about this book.

We are going to begin by reading it

on page one.

Jerry. Jerry, will you read

the first paragraph aloud, please?

''lt was the best of times,

it was the worst of times,

''it was the age of wisdom,

it was the age of foolishness,

''it was the epoch of belief,

it was the epoch of incredulity,

''it was the season of Light,

it was the season of Darkness,

''it was the spring of hope,

it was the winter of despair,

''we had everything before us,

we had nothing before us,

''we were all going directly to Heaven,

''we were all going

directly the other way...''

Thank you, Jerry. That's enough for now.

All right class,

what strikes you immediately?

The different things.

-The yes and no's.

-The opposites.

Yes. Dickens was saying

something very simple,

by the use of contrasts or opposites.

We call this...

Antithesis.

lnstead of saying,

''lt was a crazy, mixed-up period,''

he says, ''lt was the best of times,

it was the worst of times''.

But the most interesting part

of the paragraph

is still to come.

Merle, would you read

the next phrase aloud, please?

''...in short, the period was so far

like the present period...''

Stop. That's enough. Thank you.

Dickens wrote that

more than 100 years ago,

referring to a time almost 200 years ago.

''lt was so far like the present period.''

Now, what l want to know is,

can we still say that today?

ls it still the best of times,

the worst of times?

Only the worst.

Why is it only the worst, Lennie?

'Cause that's what it is.

Well, perhaps it would help us

if you would tell us

what you mean by the word ''worst''.

Poor.

But aren't we in the midst of prosperity?

lsn't it also the best of times?

There's still the rats and no toilets.

Aren't there also

new housing developments

with playgrounds and parks?

Parks is murder pits.

ls Yellowstone National Park a murder pit?

We saw the movie in assembly.

-That's right, Esmeralda.

-Narcotics makes it worse.

All right.

All right, who can answer narcotics?

What's the best?

ls it still the season of light

and the season of darkness?

-Miss Barrett.

-Yes, Eddie.

Darks don't have no chance, only whites.

What about the civil rights laws

and integration?

Yeah, what about?

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