To Sir, With Love - E.R Braithwaite

Read To Sir, With Love by E.R Braithwaite one more time. It is based on the truce incidents that Mr E.R Braithwaite involved in when he was a Teacher.

Teachers play a very important role in every student's life. They shape up the minds of next Generation. Their service is very vital in building the nation.

A good Teacher does not teach only the subjects, but He teaches about life. He inspires students. He tries to understand student's problems and try to solve it. A good Teacher guides the student to the right path when the student is in some kind of confusion or dilemma.

Especially in High School, where the student is full of Energy and Enthusiasm, the age in which everything looks beautiful and they started to get the feeling that whatever they are doing is right. the age which is so vulnerable where a single mistake can ruin the future.

In this book, The students made love in school corridors. Their vocabulary mostly consisted of four letter words.They were out to destroy the new Teacher because he was black. but they have destroyed white teachers with equal contempt. many were thieves, some were prostitutes. All but one were callous, hostile, firmly resistant toward anything that the school attempt to teach.

To this special school comes E.R Braithwaite barred by color by jobs for which he was eminently qualified. To a cultivated man, the ignorant, ill-clothed savages who confronted him  became a challenge - a challenge fought with every ounce of courage and intelligence at his command.

E.R Braithwaite shamed them, wrestled with them, enlightened them, and ultimately learned to love them. Mr Braithwaite, the new teacher, had first to fight the class bully. Then he taught defiant, hard-bitten delinquents to call him 'Sir', and to address the girls who had grown up beside them in the gutter as 'Miss'. He taught them to wash their faces and to read Shakespeare.

When he took all forty six to museums and to the opera, riots were predicted. but instead of catastrophe, a miracle happened. A dedicated teacher had turned hate into love, teenage rebelliousness into self respect, contempt into consideration for others. A man's own integrity, his concern and love for others - had won through.

This book is inspiring and moving. It brings back the memories of our school days. the context and scenario might be much more different from whatever we had experienced. but we can connect with story and we can feel the emotion. It will definitely reminds us of our favorite Teacher who corrected our path when we stepped on the wrong path.

This is how, The New York Times described the book

"A Book that reader devours quickly, ponders slowly, and forgets not at all".

In 1967, the novel was made into a film, To Sir, with Love, starring Sidney Poitier and Lulu, and the film's title song became very popular.

To Sir, With Love by E.R Braithwaite is a must read.