64 pages • 2 hours read
E. R. BraithwaiteTo Sir with Love
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1959A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6–8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
Braithwaite arrives early to his first day of school, after “‘Mom’” and “‘Dad’” Belmont wish him “‘Best of luck’” (49). Once he enters the playground, Braithwaite is shocked to hear the students routinely cursing each other via the use of the word “bloody” (49). Braithwaite encounters Drew, who he asks about the cursing. Drew gives Braithwaite good advice: “‘Most of the time they are merely showing off; the words themselves are not in their minds associated with the acts they suggest, and it is often good policy to behave as if one did not hear’” (50). Blanchard and Clinty offer Braithwaite encouragement.
The students do not seem to register Braithwaite’s presence at first, but eventually settle down. When taking role, only one student calls him “Sir” (50), a courtesy which prompts jeers from his peers. Braithwaite collects the dinner money and explains the school’s cheap-food program. Braithwaite inspects his 42 students, thinking the girls look “tawdry, jaded…[and] cheap” while the boys look “scruffier, coarser, dirtier, everything about them indicated a planned conformity” (51). The students silently watch Braithwaite, which makes him uneasy. The class goes to the auditorium for assembly, at which point the students join in prayer and listen carefully to classical music and poetry, surprising Braithwaite with their attentiveness. Florian introduces Braithwaite to the school.
Once back in the classroom, Braithwaite re-introduces himself to the class, apologizing for not knowing their names or relative abilities. He has them stand and read to assess them, deeming most of them “shockingly bad” (53) at reading. During these readings, Braithwaite notices that some students are laughing at the back of the class; upon investigation, he finds Denham with a nude figurine and disgustingly tells him to put it away. Denham insolently does, and Braithwaite feels angry but remains calm and continues the reading assessments. Braithwaite scolds them for reading badly, unsure whether they are doing it on purpose. Pamela Dare reads well to spite Braithwaite. Braithwaite thanks her and begins lecturing about the importance of literary fluency, picking books at random to read in demonstration.
At the mid-morning bell, the students leave, and Clinty comes in with tea to ask how Braithwaite is doing. Braithwaite tells her, and Clinty advises him that Florian’s ideas for how the school should run do not always work in practice; Braithwaite should make sure that he does not take any rudeness from the students, or it will only get worse, but he must never touch them. She describes how the teachers have different ways of dealing with the students, indicating her authority comes from being an East Ender herself.
Braithwaite attempts to teach the students arithmetic through weights and measures. Denham jokes about boxing, making the students laugh and Braithwaite annoyed. Braithwaite mocks Denham and continues his lesson, finding cooperation in Tich Jackson. The class continues to make jokes, and Braithwaite loses his temper, sarcastically reprimanding them for finding their ignorance amusing. The class stops laughing and Braithwaite continues the lesson until the bell rings.
Chapter 7 Summary
Irritated by the dining halls’ constant din, Braithwaite eats lunch in the staffroom. He is joined by Blanchard, who does not like the food. They speak about the students’ enjoyment of classical music, and Braithwaite explains his morning to her, much to Blanchard’s horror. The other teachers filter in, asking about Braithwaite’s morning, and Drew and Weston advise being easy on the students and getting to know them, respectively. Clinty mocks Weston, and they joke about the children’s dirty appearances. Weston jokes about Braithwaite using “black magic” (62) on the students, to Braithwaite’s annoyance. He cannot figure out whether Weston is being intentionally offensive. Drew offers a cold retort to Weston, who becomes silent. Braithwaite feels as though his colleagues want him there.
The afternoon lessons pass “without incident, but unsatisfactorily. The children neither chatted, nor laughed…[but] were unco-operative…like automata” (62). While some resent Braithwaite’s earlier remarks, others, including Jackson and Fernman, harbor no resentment. Braithwaite is intrigued by the aloof, mixed-race Seales.
On his way home, Braithwaite enters a local tobacconist and exchanges pleasantries with the owner, who tells him that none of the boarding rooms are fit for a teacher but assures Braithwaite that he will let him know when a good one becomes available. Braithwaite is astounded by the “amazing unexpectedness of human kindness” (64). During his dinner conversation with the Belmonts, they offer counsel, and all agree that Braithwaite must “gain the children’s confidence and respect” (64).
Chapter 8 Summary
Braithwaite is introduced to the process of the Weekly Review, in which the students are free to comment on or criticize anything and anyone from the past week. Florian suggests using these critiques to help shape future lessons, as the goal is to help the students, not to buffer the teachers’ egos. Upon reading these reviews, Braithwaite finds “a mixture of relief and disappointment at discovering that, apart from mentioning that they had a new ‘blackie’ teacher, very little attention was given to me” (66). Braithwaite realizes the students do not believe he will stick around, and devises ways of connecting with them, reading up on child psychology and suggested methods to no avail.
Braithwaite realizes his relationship with the students went through three stages: the first two being marked by antipathy and morose silence, and then, subsequently, disruptive noise. In the first, silent phase, the students merely watch Braithwaite, who tries to encourage their engagement with the lessons, only to find a common “conspiracy of disinterest” (67) from the students. During the next, noisy phase, the students bang the lids of their desks to disrupt Braithwaite’s lectures. Braithwaite concludes they cannot write and bang their desks at the same time, although he knows he cannot avoid lecturing forever, growing angrier at their impudence. Braithwaite investigates the neighborhood, hoping to learn something of the students because he does not want to fail at this job and prove Weston right.
While Braithwaite is reading poetry to the class, Monica Page lets her desk fall; when Braithwaite looks at her for explanation, she says “the bleeding thing won’t stay up,” which hallmarks the third,“bawdy” stage in Braithwaite’s relationship with the students (68). During this stage, the children continually use the words bleeding and bloody, considered a curse word in England. Eventually, Braithwaite gets fed up, and asks Jane Purcell if she speaks to her father like that, at which point Purcell rather pointedly states, “You’re not my bleeding father” (68). Purcell is congratulated by her classmates for “putting that black bastard in his place” (69).
After this incident, the students’ behavior worsens, and Braithwaite starts to feel cynical. He wonders if he should also concern himself with their behavior outside the classroom, as he feels that it dictates their behavior inside, as well as the behavior of the younger students. For example, one young boy “miraculously escaped serious injury when he crashed through the glass roof of the girl’s lavatory while trying to spy on them” (69). The other teachers are more concerned with the possible legal ramifications if he had been hurt.
After recess one day, Braithwaite returns to find that someone has lit a used sanitary napkin on fire in the fireplace. Disgusted, Braithwaite sends the boys out of the room and berates the girls, labeling them all complicit “filthy slut[s]” (70). Braithwaite leaves to stew in the library, but becomes “determined to take firm action to set my class in order” (71). He decides to not allow untidiness, cursing, banging of desks, or anything else he deems disruptive. He returns to class and ignores the incident, although the girls remain sheepish and the boys watch him closely.
Chapters 6–8 Analysis
These chapters indicate the beginning and the devolution of Braithwaite’s relationship with his students. More than anything, these chapters illustrate the differences in behavior and beliefs between Braithwaite and his students, creating a gap that Braithwaite finds difficult to traverse. He is unimpressed by the students’ physical presentation, and finds their behavior abominable, facts which are not lost on the students themselves, who view Braithwaite with apathy and even contempt. This interpersonal relationship worsens as the chapters progress, finally coming to a kind of miniature climax during the sanitary napkin incident at the end of Chapter 8.
One of the motifs that presents itself as indicative of the differences between Braithwaite and his students is in their divergent use of language. While the students seem to use language free from connotation almost as if they do not truly understand the words’ meanings, Braithwaite believes that language and words have context. As such, he is shocked by the carefree manner in which they curse around adults. The children do not seem to understand the subtleties associated with language or the power of words; rather, they parrot back words that they have heard. To Braithwaite, this ignorance indicates the importance of linguistic education; he seeks to empower these children to say only what they truly mean.
In contrast, Braithwaite frequently says exactly what he means, even going so far as to denigrate his students, which of course does not bolster his popularity among them. He repeatedly thinks of the female students as sluts, indicating both his view of these children as well as his own personal bias against women. Braithwaite has a very particular idea of how a so-called decent woman should act, and he is appalled to see that these students represent the opposite of this ideal.
These chapters also indicate the burgeoning importance of names within the novel. Braithwaite gives his first name to Clinty, who in turn allows him to use her nickname, indicating a growth in their interpersonal relationship. In contrast, Braithwaite appreciates when one of the students refers to him as Sir, even though the student’s peers mock him for this sign of respect.
These chapters also demonstrate the dual use of silence within the novel. On one hand, the students use silence in order to buck authority; their insolent silence can be taken as disinterest in the material or a lack of engagement with it. In other sections, the students use silence to indicate their rapt attentiveness to the material, such as their silent consideration of the classical music played during assembly. In this way, the chimerical nature of silence can be seen as representative of the quick moodiness of the children themselves: depending upon their mood, they can go from eager and willing to understand culture to the vicious untidiness Braithwaite finds so reprehensible. The duality of their silence indicates that it is the responsibility of the teacher to dictate which way their attitudes will go.
