Up the Down Staircase (novel)

Up the Down Staircase is a humorous novel written by Bel Kaufman , and published in 1965.

The plot revolves around Sylvia Barrett, a young idealistic teacher who quickly becomes discouraged during her first year of teaching at a large inner-city high school. Frustrated by petty bureaucracy, the indifference of her students, and the incompetence of many of her coworkers, she decides to leave public school to work in a smaller private setting. Her mind is changed by the realization that she has indeed touched the lives of her students.

The novel is epistolary in form: the plot is advanced largely through memos from the office, fragments of notes dropped in the trash can, essays that were handed in to be graded, lesson plans, suggestions dropped in the class suggestion box, and letters written by Barrett to her friends.

The novel has been adapted to film and stage. The film version, released in 1967, starred Sandy Dennis. The play is frequently performed in high school drama classes.

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