E. R. BraithwaiteReseñas

First sentence: The crowded red double-decker bus inched its way through the snarl of traffic in Aldgate. It was almost as if it was reluctant to get rid of the overload of noisy, earthy charwomen it had collected on its run through the city--thick-armed, bovine women, huge-breasted, with heavy bodies irrevocably distorted by frequent childbearing, faces pink and slightly damp from their early labors, the warm May morning and their own energy.

Premise/plot: Historical fiction/autobiographical novel. Set in the East End (I believe) of London during the mid/late 1940s. [I *want* to say that the year 1947 was used???] Mr. Braithwaite doesn't want to be a teacher. He really doesn't. But with limited opportunities for employment--complicated in part by the color of his skin--he accepts the job reluctantly and with some bitterness. [In the movie, the bitterness was disguised much more. Here the text ripples with anger, bitterness, dare I say hate???] He doesn't seem to enjoy teaching, for the most part, or like most of his coworkers [with the exception of a few], and he definitely doesn't enjoy being around his students--not really. But over the course of a year--a little less than a year--he comes to better terms with his life. I wouldn't say he ever comes to love it though.

My thoughts: The book may be a thousand times truer to life. But. I will always prefer the movie. I knew a little of what to expect from watching the movie, but, nothing really prepared me for the author's narrative style. It was a little earthy/crude for my personal taste. [Like did every thought the teacher had about breasts have to be included??? Like noticing his students, coworkers, fellow bus riders, etc.] It is definitely a race book--for better or worse. He felt less discriminated against during the war, and settling back down he was unprepared for how much prejudice he would [still] encounter in his day to day life. He does date one of his white coworkers--a fellow teacher--and the two do face some problems.

Good teaching / students in poor London area story. Read it after seeing movie.

Okay, seriously? My fourth one-star rating in a row as of recently? I am going to sit down and read my favorite book soon, to clear my mind of bad books and remind myself good ones await me. I am listening to Enya's "A Day Without Rain" album to soothe my crankiness, even.

I tried to read this when I was eleven. I read anything I could get my hands on. I vaguely understood it. My aunt brought the movie over, and I understood that a lot more clearly. Twenty years later, I saw tons and tons of ads for a romance with a strikingly similar name, and wondered if it had been re-released. I was curious to learn if I'd think differently of the book as an adult. I did.
This is a memoir that was published in 1959. It takes place in 1950s England. There's many references to WWII and its effects. So I'd consider this also classic literature: it being published more than sixty years ago. If this were a novel, my review would continue henceforth: "I'm not one for classic literature. The first fifty pages could have easily been cut. The plot was boring and predictable. It was undoubtedly revolutionary for its time in terms of race relations, plot, and reflections on racism." But this is a memoir, so...this guy has a -lot- of inner monologue and he goes on and on, especially when describing how people look and sound. There's an enormous amount of misogyny in this. I don't care that it was probably very typical for the time period. It was awful to read, and to have a teacher freely announce he thought that way of his students especially. Sir refers to his female students as sluts and women around him--ones who ride the same bus, ones who are more senior in teaching, just women in general--as bitches. He drools over several female students while simultaneously despising how they dress. So, he's got a massive madonna/whore complex. Towards girls he has power over. Who haven't even finished puberty yet. GROSS. One student wears a gray sweater regularly and no bra, and Sir cannot shut up internally about her greasy sweater and huge, wobbly breasts. She's probably too poor to have a bra, weirdo. When it's hard to put food on the table, water and electricity aren't always manageable, either. I had to make these choices for a long time until I went on a bunch of welfare by moving to a different city. Now I'm being kicked off some of it and will have to make those decisions all over again. Sir would yap at me inwardly too, certainly.

Sir describes everyone ever in ways I find odd. He teaches typical teenagers and is offended by this, and by their grinding poverty over which they have no control. They're trashy, though, and have terrible manners, which he sets out to correct while mentally calling them horrible names. If this were a novel, I'd call him a Gary Stu: he's rude to students, considers many other senior teachers beneath him, is hired on the spot, was trained in an entirely different field, can't stand teenagers or poor people; and is still praised and turns the kids' lives around. Perhaps his arrogance and condescension are defense mechanisms against the racism and hardships he does face. It's increasingly grating to read on the page, though. The movie cuts a bunch of this--his inner monologue that makes up 80% of the book is dropped, and he's just a stern teacher, not a creep. The adaptation does a great job with the action in the book, or what little there is. Watch it instead of reading the thoughts of a creepy, bitter teacher.

You know those American films about the white female teacher who goes and teaches at some rough disadvantaged inner-city school full of Black/minority kids with attitude and disrespect towards authority, and somehow she connects with them and changes their attitude and they all become starry-eyed students grateful for her guidance?

Well, this is the same story, but with a black British Guiana male teacher teaching at a tough East End school, with the complexities of the racial barriers being re-raised now that WWII is over.

On the one hand, it is very well done the way we are just told of the racism the protagonist encounters and - without further discussion - the compounded secondary racism from the underlying tensions and condescension around how the white characters thought he should handle these encounters.

On the other hand, it's another extremely idealistic story of the inexperienced saviour-teacher who somehow succeeded where more experienced teachers have failed because they are all just too jaded to care anymore.

Great thought-provoking themes albeit with very worn teacher tropes.½

This is the heartwarming tale, supposedly autobiographical, of a black teacher at an East London school in the years following World War II. A little clichéd, as the friend who gave this book to me quipped, I found it an absorbing read. Enjoyed it!

This book is like a time capsule from London when you could still look out your schoolroom window and see bombed out buildings from WWII that hadn't been repaired yet. The narrator is a black man, and prejudice was still real, pervasive, and tacitly accepted at this time. He becomes a high school teacher because he is unable to get a job in his chosen profession. The school is tough and the students at first give him a hard time. He slowly wins them over, and learns to appreciate them in turn. He becomes a great teacher. At the end his students give him a gift with a tag that says, "To Sir, With Love," giving the book its title.

This was a quick read but a bit tame - nothing really terrible happens and issues are resolved quickly and positively for the most part. I found the narrator a bit arrogant - perhaps an understandable posture considering all the little indignities he describes facing every day - but this made him a bit less likeable/sympathetic. I am really eager to watch the movie again to remember how Sidney Poitier portrayed him. And of course to hear Lulu belt out the theme song.

The story of a black former WWII pilot and his experiences teaching in an inner city school in the East End of London. Written in 1959, my jaded 2019 mind was waiting for the drama and the proverbial shoe to drop, but it delightfully does not. Was the basis for the Sidney Poitier movie (which the author didn't really like). I never knew that it was based on Braithwaite's actual experience.

This book is a "must-read" if you have a mentor who changed your life, uplifted your true talents and encouraged you to be better day after day.
Brathwaite, the protagonist of the story, is the true definition of a mentor. An ex-RAF officer, when he comes to London for a decent job, he is rejected at all the places that he applies, due to his skin colour. Although, the reasons given to him for rejection are stupid ones. Hence, the image that he had of a modern London - of treating everyone equal breaks; and thus dejected, he applies as an English teacher in East London.
The students at the school, being brought up in shanty areas, do not impress him enough. But he takes on the job with the reminder that he needs to feed himself and this job is just enough to do that for a while. When the classes commence and he interacts with his students and understands them slowly and gradually, he realises that it is in his power whether he should improve their minds or let them be.
And thus begins a journey of building up their manners, attitudes towards each other and their brains to survive in the professional world they will soon be stepping into. This class now no longer is just an English class. Among the many things that he teaches them, he is also successful in liberating their hearts from racialism.
This book is filled with pure empathy, encouragement and eloquence.

I must be on a sentimental journey involving some of my favorite films and the books they were based on. First, it was The Shrinking Man, and now it's To Sir, With Love.

This time, the book compares very favorably to the movie. In the book, we see everything through the eyes of "Sir" instead of being an outsider-looking-in as we are in the movie. There are several things that were either glossed over or not even brought up in the movie-- in many cases I think the filmmakers wanted the audience to use common sense to realize, for instance, that the reason why Braithwaite could not get an engineering position was due to racism, not the fact that there were no jobs available. In fact, almost everything relating to racism was left out of the movie, no doubt in an effort to make it palatable to the greatest number of moviegoers.

My final verdict? I still love the movie starring Sidney Poitier; I always will. But I am very glad that I read E.R. Braithwaite's autobiography. In reading the book I feel as though I've gotten much closer to learning the entire story while the movie gives me the Reader's Digest condensed version.½

I had seen the movie more than a decade ago and remembered having great impressions of it, so considering that book is a classic and short read, I finally managed to read the book recently. It's a good book, but not great. My review is going to be biased because I am writing this 70 years after the events.

The story is simple, and events are not as dramatic. A black man's experience in post-war London is not surprising with the context of history, and few key events in his short teaching history aren't extraordinary. Perhaps with the vantage of change in time, I am immune, but addressing students respectfully and treating them as an adult doesn't appear to be a such as dramatic act on part of Mr. Braithwaite. I can understand though how it may have differed from his contemporaries at that time. Similarly, hardships he encountered from students are unusual for a school, for sure, but were easily handled with basic courtesy and civility. His success with students in very short tenure of nine months is noteworthy but also give an aura of unbelievability. Any parent who has gone through a litany of books on parenting only to find that they don't work on his or her child knows the reaction towards self-congratulatory awesome work by the author in the classroom.

That said, the book narrates a simple chronological account of events in a school. It's a light read and didn't leave me with any thought-provoking questions.

I love books written on student- teacher bond. This was a good read because it definitely invoked memories from school and college and the teacher who encouraged me the most. Madan Sir, you are fondly remembered and deeply missed.
The issues this book touches upon, esp the being a Black man in Britain and the societal attitude towards colored folks is not very different from the caste inflicted hatred towards Dalits in India. Even today, when many of them are well-educated, well-read they are subject to humiliation because of their background. I wonder how much of the book did the author had to undergo whilst dealing against such prejudices? Indeed to be read by people who say they believe this racial/caste system doesn't exist anymore and that it was a thing done by their ancestors.

Fascinating look at post WWII east end life from the POV of a black teacher. I have to go and find the movie now - I wonder if it is a movie that Hollywood would make now or if it would be too much for them?

To Sir, With Love by E. R. Braithwaite has been recently re-released by Open Road Media and is highly recommended for the intelligent narrative as well as the historical perspective on racism.

Originally written in 1959 and set in the post WWII tough East End of London, To Sir, With Love is a nonfiction account of a well-educated 28 year old man from Guyana who stumbles upon his teaching career by accident when he cannot find another job due to his skin color. Braithwaite accepts the teaching position, but makes it clear that he "did not become a teacher out of any sense of vocation; mine was no considered decision in the interests of youthful humanity or the spread of planned education. It was a decision forced on me by the very urgent need to eat; it was a decision brought about by a chain of unhappy experiences which began about a week after my demobilization from the Royal Air Force in 1945." (Location 448)

After being jobless for 18 months, "Disillusionment had given place to a deepening, poisoning hatred; slowly but surely I was hating these people who could so casually, so unfeelingly deny me the right to earn a living. I was considered too well educated, too good for the lowly jobs, and too black for anything better."(Location 607)

He finds himself at Greenslade Secondary School in charge of 40 students. His initial encounter with the students is not what he expected: "I felt shocked by the encounter. My vision of teaching in a school was one of straight rows of desks, and neat, well-mannered, obedient children. The room I had just left seemed like a menagerie.... Was it the accepted thing here? Would I have to accept it too? "(Location 161)

The majority of the children could be generally classified as difficult with a disregard for authority. They are poorly fed, clothed and housed. They face a multitude of difficulties in an environment that is lacking in every way, however, as Braithwaite points out, they are, as a majority, white. He has faced numerous difficulties and hurdles based on his skin color. Certainly these children can be taught to overcome their limitations.

Braithwaite is very blunt and, well, insulting, in some of his descriptions and this is especially noticeable at the beginning of the book. For all his difficulties endured due to racism, clearly sexism was also a prevalent part of the times. I had to take into consideration the time in which it was originally written and place it in a historical context.

If you have seen the movie, it is impossible to read the book To Sir, With Love by E. R. Braithwaite without picturing Sidney Poitier and hearing the song sung by Lulu.
While there are many similarities, there are many differences too. The book is set in the late 1940s while the movie, released in 1967, changed the setting to the 60's. The book also deals openly with questions of race and the overt prejudice Braithwaite felt in Great Britain. The timeline for some events in the book is changed around for the movie. In comparison to the sombrer tone of the book, the movie feels light-hearted.
Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Open Road Media via Netgalley for review purposes.

This book is wonderful! I didn't realize that it is non-fiction, which makes it even better! The author tells the story of his beginnings as a teacher in London and the racial prejudice that he faced during that era (the book was written in 1959). He tells of his trials and accomplishments with the students, and of his relationship with a white woman/fellow teacher. This book was much more that I expected -- I highly recommend it!!

The Title Song by Lulu is one of my all time pop favorites, along with A Day in the Life, How Soon is Now? and Good Vibrations. I have not seen the movie adaptation. The book was vastly different from what I expected. It originally thought it was a fictional story. It is actually based on Ricky Braithwaite's experience teaching in an east end London school utilizing new teaching methods (no physical punishment, group discussions and common lunch meals). Not the best writing, but he captures dialogue well and tries to be sensitive to what he felt emotionally which in the 1950's was not to be taken for granted. He cites being a RAF veteran pilot but never says what he did other than "operations". Since he could not get a postwar job in his field of engineering, he was forced to apply for a teaching assignment. He begins to see in these 1950's outsider high school students a little of himself. Neither he nor they are fit into society as the prime elements for success. Braithwaite's students go on to vocational schools or military service. This is a slanted view from Braithwaite himself, as he reveals his own prejudices about others throughout the book in an offhand manner. He once calls girls in the class 'sluts' and gets into a boxing glove match with a student and knocks the wind out of the boy with a shot to the solar plexus. He's not the sharpest teacher. He spends much time brooding over the polite nature of English racial prejudice, as he saw it revealed slowly, compared to the more overt prejudice he saw in the American south. The southern Negroes of America would push back or at least were beginning to. There is a love story to be found in here but with another teacher who also saw the need to move slowly with regard to mixed race marriages in English society. I found this to be more about racial identity confusion or culture shock than about inspirational student mentoring. Still worth reading while displaying how far education has moved on from the 50's.

I found this book on my dad's shelves back when I just began my freshman year in university. Really really liked the story of a highly educated black man, with highly educated parents in that era, an ex-pilot fresh out of work after the WWII, finding his place as a high school teacher of adolescent kids in a poor British neighborhood. It was practical and inspiring. The movie adaptation was good as well, but not exactly like the book. Sadly the original copy of the book was lost when my father lent it to one of his colleagues.

Overall, nearly a five-star read for me. To Sir, With Love is a remarkable story. The writing is exceptionally clear and to the point while the characters spring to life on the page. My one small issue; I felt as though Braithwaite bathed himself in an overly rosy light at times. Being an autobiography, I understand that we only get one side of the stories presented. As such, I found myself wondering how the children and other faculty might remember those days?

Regardless of this one small issue, after more than half a century since its release, the book remains eminently readable and still resonates deeply. It is a snapshot of the times - at least as how the times were perceived by a person of color with a privileged upbringing. The fact that Braithwaite went on to become ambassador does speak volumes for his credibility so perhaps events really did happen precisely how he portrays.

Wonderful book. A very easy read.
Like the blurb says "A book that the reader devours quickly, ponders slowly, and forgets not at all."

I still remember the details when we were studying this for our English lessons in school.
I don't think I could find anything bad about it.

Recommended for everyone!

Born in British Guyana (now Guyana), E.R. Braithwaite was trained as an engineer, and after serving in the RAF during WWII, he expected he would have no trouble finding work in his chosen field in Great Britain. However, it became clear very quickly that no one was willing to hire him because of the colour of his skin. It was only due to a chance encounter that he decided to apply for a teaching job. Not surprisingly, he was assigned to a school with one of the worst reputations in the East End of London.

Despite the fact that Braithwaite is determined to see teaching as a job not a career, he decides to make the best of it. Unfortunately, his first weeks are a disaster. Not only the colour of his skin but his patrician upbringing, and his lack of training make it almost impossible for him to relate to his students. At first, the problems seem insurmountable. The children are belligerent and deliberately offensive, testing him at every opportunity and, at first, he retaliates with anger. But somewhere along the way, he reassesses his own attitude towards his students. He determines to change the rules; he will scrap the lesson plan and they can talk about anything as long as they treat each other with respect. To this end, he is to be called Sir, the girls will be addressed as Miss, and the boys by their last names. By treating these children as adults, he wins, not only their respect but their love.

Braithwaite’s autobiographical novel is a fascinating look at the effect a good teacher can have on their students. It also gives an interesting look at the hopes and dreams people from British colonial countries placed on Britain and how the reality was so far from those dreams:

“Yes, it is wonderful to be British – until one comes to Britain”

In the end, though, it is an inspiring tale of how minds and attitudes can be changed if people are willing to listen to and treat each other each other with respect. Written in 1959, I have read comments from other reviewers saying that this novel is outdated. Personally, I think its message has never been more fresh or more needed

The nun's at my high school thought our class incorrigible. They hoped this book would save us, (well in combination with the movie) starring Sidney Poitier as Thackeray and Lulu as Barbara "Babs" Pegg and the film's title song "To Sir, with Love", sung by Lulu, - it did save quite a few of us. Some of us still read books! Only those who passed the English exam (included an essay on the book) were allowed the excursion to see the film.

My favorite book! I first read it when I was 11 years old, having found the book in a pile of old books my grandmother was going to burn in the trash barrel. Lucky escape for both me and the book. I'm positive that this book is the reason I never learned to be prejudiced. The frankness in the conversations between Sir and his students about being black and HUMAN just like them, (especially when they "discover" his blood is red!)was something that stuck with me. I've just re-read it and although as an adult I can now say that maybe the writing is a bit dated and stiff, I still think everyone should read it. In my opinion, it has a mind expanding purpose.

I experienced an audio dramatisation with a dozen actors.
Moving story of a young man newly qualified as an engineer trying to make his way in the world.
Frustrated by the prejudices he meets at every turn, the narrator is forced to consider his options.
Searingly honest and heartfelt story of a man's struggle to live a decent life in the face of overwhelming obstacles.

I must have been around eleven or twelve years old when I watched To Sir With Love (1967). It was a movie that moved me a great deal, not to mention Sidney Poitier's excellent acting! I never got to see it again after that first time, and was quite excited to come across only last week at a local book store. There was just one copy of the book with a very dignified Poitier gazing out from its cover.I grabbed it.Read it.It is a story about the experience Braithwaite had as a teacher - an authobiography that documents one stage on his life. Very well educated, Braithwaite works as an engineer until the Second World War calls him to a sense of his patriotic duty. He joins the R.A.F. and leads the life of a hero...until the war is over. Back in civilian clothes and confident about getting a good job with his excellent qualifications, Braithwaite suffers a terrible disillussionment when he finds that the colour of his skin brings out the prejudice in his fellow white Britons. For me personally, it is easy to relate to what he says in the following passage: The majority of Britons at home have very little appreciation of what that intangible yet amazingly real and invaluable export - The British Way of Life - means to colonial people; and they seem to give little thought to the fantastic phenomenon of races so very different from themselves in pigmentation, and widely scattered geographically, assiduously indentifying themselves with British loyalties, beliefs and traditions. This attitude can easily be observed in the way in which the coloured Colonial will quote the British systems of Law, Education and Government, and will adopt fashions in dress and social codes, even though his knowledge of these things has depended largely on secondhand information. All this is especially true of the West Indian Colonials, who are predominantly the descendants of slaves who were forever removed from the cultural influenc of their forefathers, and who lived, worked, and reared their children through the rigours of slavery and the growing pains of gradual enfrachisement, according to the only example they knew - the British Way.

The ties which bind them to Britain are strong, and this is very apparent on each occasion of a Royal visit, when all of them, young and old, rich and poor, join happily together in unrestrained and joyful demonstrations of welcome. Yes, it is wonderful to be British - until one comes to Britain. By dint of careful saving or through hard-won scholarships many of them arrive in Britain to be educate in the Arts and Sciences and in the varied processes of legislative and administrative government. They come, bolstered by a firm, conditioned belief that Britain and the British stand for all that is best in both Christian and Democratic terms; in their naivete they ascribe these high principles to all Britons, without exception. I had grown up British in every way. Myself, my parents and my parents' parents, none of us knew or could know any other way of living, of thinking, of being; we knew no other cultural pattern, and I had never heard any of my forebears complain about being British. As a boy I was taught to appreciate English literature, poetry and prose, classical and contemporary, and it was absolutely natural for me to identify myself with the British heroes of the adventure stories against the villains of the piece who were invariably non-British, and so to my boy-ish mind, more easily capable of villainous conduct. The more selective reading of my college and university life was marked by the same predilectio as for English literature, and I did not hesitate to defend my preferences to my American colleagues.

For two years Braithwaite struggles to find a job midst the prejudice that festers in the civilian world. At long last he gets a position as a teacher in a rather poor neighbourhood. It wasn't something he had been looking to do, and to top it of, his students would be white save for one child.

My own experiences during the past two years invaded my thoughts, reminding me that these children were white; hungry or filled, naked or clothed, they were white, and as far as I was concerned, that fact alone made the difference between the haves and the have-nots. I wanted this job badly and I was quite prepared to do it to the best of my ability, but it would be a job, not a labour of love.

But as teacher and students struggle to maintain a balance this story becomes a narrative not on black and white, but on a relationship slowly yet surely forged between a misfit bunch of children and their teacher, friend and guide. In fact, at one point as he is calling out attendance he mentions how it wasn't really necessary as he already knew who was absent:

I could quickly spot an absence, so much a part of me the class had become.

Of course, the struggle of the blacks does not take a back seat. We find how quick people are to assume the worst of a black man; how he is treated like filth even in a fancy restaurant where he is obviously more cultured and educated than the waiter; and even where doubts creep in with the reaction of others to his romantic relationship with Miss Blanchard, his white fellow-teacher. It is a struggle against a prejudice cloaked in British poise and etiquette. Braithwaite says it was easier for the black man in America to fight for his rights since the prejudice was so open and obvious. But in Britain it was hard to fight for rights, that on the surface, looked absolutely clear and proper. The story ends with the passing out of his very first class, but his story continues in other books on various stages of his life.The novel is written in the first person, and is very crisp and to the point. Each chapter is episodic in style, and though a short novel, it covers quite a bit of ground. I cannot say that the book moved me. In fact, I think the movie did that to me. Nevertheless, it keeps you interested and wondering - especially with regard to the relationship between Braithwaite and his students. This is a novel that teachers would relate to quite easily. I would say that this is a must read only for the themes that recur throughout the novel. However, it's yet another easy read.

E.R. Braithwaite is in the company of a select few: teachers who make a difference. Leaders in education have no trouble touching the lives of one or two of their students. That happens all the time, but to change an entire class is no small feat. I think that's why they make movies like "Dead Poet's Society" and "Mr. Holland's Opus." Such teachers are an inspiration to the of world education. Braithwaite enters the world of teaching by default. As an out-of-work engineer who cannot get a job due to the color of his skin he is forced to apply for positions outside his area of expertise. A chance meeting with a stranger leads him to apply for a position with the Greenslade Secondary School in London's ill reputed East End. There, Braithwaite meets children more callous and uncouth than any adult he's ever encountered. They are defiant and daring, determined to run Braithwaite out of school, just has they had done before. Only Braithwaite is not so easily cowed. And so begins the odyssey of E.R. Braithwaite and his remarkable story. He is able to turn thieves and would-be prostitutes into respectful, intelligent individuals.½

This is the inspiring true story of a teacher overcoming obstacles to give his students the best while also trying to make his own way in the world as a black man in a predominantly white country. Not exactly great literature, but it is cogently written and worth reading as a glimpse into the educational field, at race relations, and at another time and place.