Second Thoughts on Teacher's Scrapbook

"Second Thoughts on Teacher's Scrapbook" is a review of Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman, published in the book review section of Life Magazine on September 3, 1965. It is about Sylvia Barrett, an idealistic young public school teacher. The review is written as a parody of the novel's style, seemingly made of "official school memos, student compositions and assorted classroom wastebasket items".

Summary

Bel Kaufman, 2013

One student, signed Bad at Figures, congratulates Kaufman in a badly written letter for selling the movie rights to her book about all her dumb students "for four big ones" and praises her for her epistolary style which looks easy but is "[p]rolly hard". A poem by Snowbird calls her book "sad but cute", while Nudist says Kaufman's book tried to tell "the naked truth" but in the end the message seems to be that the school system is "terrible, but about as good as can be expected, so everybody might as well relax". Ticklish's father hates the book, saying it's a woman's book since the men in it were all "weak or dum or crule", although he says that because father is all those things himself, according to his wife. Old Enough to be in the Paratroops says he would have done better in the teacher's class if she "wuzzent a girl" which confuses his thoughts. A memo from Principal Maxwell E. Clarke says the school will probably be asked for a statement on their issues being aired so publicly and staff are advised to respond with silence. However, Barrett's replacement at Coolidge High writes a letter of praise, calling it "not a novel, but an effective collage", brilliantly assembled, a truthful portrayal of the life of a modern American teacher. It exposes the neglect and destruction found in New York public schools that aren't likely to disappear without more money and fewer "chowderheads".