The Expression Hub

Author: E. R. Braithwaite

Genre:Autobiographical

“The true teachers are those who help us think about ourselves.”

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

After a long period of the festivities and me traveling to work for some work, I finally get the chance to hit the keys of the keyboard for the love of writing. Believe me it feels amazing when you return to something you have loved doing after a break.Though it does get on your nerves as you have to finish your pending work 🙄especially if you are trying to instill discipline in you. But you should never give up on the person which you want to become and keep trying until you do not have to put in much work and everything works out the way you have always wanted to. So, till then I should just keep working and keep pushing myself is how I comfort myself.

In this hectic schedule, I could also not conclude my series dedicated to the humans who shape us into better human beings – the teachers. So, here I am with my concluding post that raises a toast to these human beings. While writing, I did notice that all the posts which have been written about the teachers in my blog are male teachers- a thing which is very seldomly talked about because of the common perception that when it comes to the job of teaching, it is the females who always lead the forte. But believe me , it is a blessing if you have a great and an understanding teacher who can always make you put your best foot forward irrespective of the gender they possess. Talking about one such teacher who reluctantly accepted the job but as time passed went on to do a fine job . Dig in to find out more.

About the book: To Sir, with Love narrates the story of Ricky Braithwaite, an engineer who has worked in an oil refinery in Aruba and has also served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force. But after the war, he is unable to find work despite his qualifications and experience. The reason is simple: he is a man of color due to which he feels frustrated and helpless. However, after an interaction with a stranger, he applies for a teaching position and is assigned to a school in the east end of London.

The class he is assigned to is filled with students who are not willing to learn and are only semi-literate or semi-articulate. They try to discourage and demoralize him . But one day they literally cause him to lose a temper when someone burns a used sanitary napkin in the fireplace. Following this, he decides to set some ground rules and use a different approach. With this approach, he begins to treat them like adults. Will the new approach work wonders for both the teacher and the students? Will the teacher be able to earn the respect of his students ?Or will he still be a laughing stock?Try finding out the answers by yourselves ;p

Analysis: The book narrates the tale of a man who is a native of the British Guyana who moves to the Great Britain due to his job. The book attempts to draw a picture of how people with color were subject to being prejudiced and did not get equal opportunities. Not only were they denied equal opportunities, but they were also denied proper treatment as interaction with them could lead to being chastised by the society in general.

Though the author is skeptical about the choice he made due to lack of employment opportunities, he does persist through the tough times and tries to become a better role model to his students. And that is what a good teacher is I personally feel always keeping the welfare of his students a priority. He encourages them to look the world from a different perspective and appreciate the world around them.

Verdict: Overall an interesting tale as it narrates the story of a man of a colour in the post War times. However, a lot of references made to adult stuff which might make it uncomfortable for some. The reason that I feel such references have been made into the novel are because of the fact that the locals reside in a locality which resembles a neighborhood that is raw and uncivilized in nature. So, if you are interested to know about how an engineer turned teacher lived his life in London during the Post War times so do go ahead and give it a read. It will help you to understand about how people lived during that time as well as provide some food for thought. On the other hand, if you are the one who finds reading about the lives of people boring then you can definitely give this one a skip. After all there are definitely better books out there with interesting genres.

Cite Bite: “A man who is strong and tough never needs to show it in his dress or the way he cuts his hair. Toughness is a quality of the mind, like bravery or honesty or ambition; it has nothing whatever to do with muscles.”