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the cardinal sin, strange as it may seem in an institution of learning, is talking. there are others, of course — sins, i mean, and i seem to have committed a good number. yesterday i was playing my record of gielgud4 reading shakespeare. i had brought my own phonograph to school (no one could find the requisition forms for "audio-visual aids" — that's the name for the school record player) and i had succeeded, i thought, in establishing a mood. i mean, i got them to be quiet, when — enter admiral ass,5 in full regalia, epaulettes quivering with indignation. he snapped his fingers for me to stop the phonograph, waited for the turntable to stop turning, and pronounced:
"there will be a series of three bells rung three times indicating emergency shelter drill. playing records does not encourage the orderly evacuation of the class."
i mention mchabe because he has crystallized into the
chaos, waste, cries for help — strident, yet unheard. or am i romanticizing? that's what paul says; he only shrugs and makes up
funny verses about everyone. that's paul barringer — a writer who teaches english on one foot, as it were, just waiting to be published. he's very attractive: a tan crew cut, a white smile with lots of teeth;
one eyebrow higher than the other. all the girls are in love with him.
there are a.few good, hard-working, patient who manage to teach against insuperable odds; a few brilliantly endowed teachers who — unknown and unsung — work their magic in the classroom; a few who truly love young people. the rest, it seems to me, have either given up, or are taking it out on the kids. "those who can, do, those who can't, teach." like most sayings, this is only half true. those who can, teach; those who can't — the bitter, the misguided, the failures from other fields — find in the school system an excuse or a
and dr. bester, my immediate supervisor, chairman of the english department, i can't figure out at all. he is a dour, desiccated little man, remote and prissy.6 like most chairmen, he teaches only one class of seniors; the most experienced teachers are frequently promoted right out of the classroom! kids respect him; teachers dislike him - possibly because he is given to popping up, unexpectedly, to observe them. "the ghost walks" is the grape-vine signal for his visits. bea7 told me he started out as a great teacher, but he's been soured by the trivia-mtriplicate which his administrative duties impose. i hope he doesn't come to observe me until i get my bearings.
