To Sir with Love [Paperback]

E. R. Braithwaite (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1990

The author's experiences as a teacher in the slums of London.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Jove (October 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0515105198
• ISBN-13: 978-0515105193
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #230,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > General

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book Well Worth Reading, March 1, 2004

By 

C. Knight (Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Sir with Love (Paperback)

To Sir, with Love is an unbelievably inspiring story. E. R. Braithwaite, the author of this memoir, captures the shame and hatred of prejudices and racism. The journey begins in the East End of London, during the 1940's. Mr. Braithwaite teaches at Greenslade Secondary School, which is surrounded by poor neighborhoods filled with social vermin. Rick Braithwaite is a young black man, born in South America, who just got out of the Air Force. Now in Britain, Braithwaite's looking for a career, mainly to pay for food, but things don't work out as planned. He came to know the virus of prejudice very well, as he was turned down from job after job. Braithwaite described feeling "caught like an insect in the tweezer grip of prejudice." Teaching became the cure to set him free.

Braithwaite is placed in a classroom full of rude, obnoxious children, but little does he know that these are the children who will change his life. In the beginning, he described that he wanted this job, "but it would be a job, not a labor of love." Then, after spending time with the students, Mr. Braithwaite began "learning from them as well as teaching them." The class may have problems in their home lives, but when they enter the classroom, Mr. Braithwaite joins them on a journey to adulthood. The students ask many questions, which allows them to acquire the knowledge they deserve. On occasion the questions touch upon people of different races, and Mr. Braithwaite gives mature answers, and speaks to them as adults. Braithwaite's theory is to treat his students older than they are so they will behave more grownup. With a teacher who respects his students, they, in return, accept him and honor him with the courtesy of "Sir".

An English woman, Gillian Blanchard, is also a new teacher at Greenslade, and she and Rick develop a relationship. Although they see themselves as a normal couple, no one else can agree with Rick and Gillian's relationship. Even strangers make judgments about them and treat Rick like he is worthless. Does Gillian have enough strength to keep their relationship together? Was she truly free from the virus of racial intolerance? In the end, they are confident with their love for each other, and Rick demonstrates his confidence by finally standing up for himself to Gillian's parents. Most of all he explained how much he cared for their daughter as he says, "I would not have cared if she had been blue or green." Their relationship contributes to Braithwaite's discovery of himself and how people treat him.

It is helpful to the story that the characters are real people with which we can relate. The dialect is detailed and interesting, which makes me think further about the text and my own life. I can really feel for the people in this story, especially Mr. Braithwaite. Reading history firsthand from someone's point of view is always interesting to me, and the author's use of metaphors and creative words influence me to get caught up with the story. This book truly interests me because of the issues it discusses, such as equal rights and self-discovery. For example, throughout the story, Mr. Braithwaite realizes that it was not his skin color holding him back, it was his attitude. He reflects that, "At first it was terrible, but gradually I'm learning what it means to live with dignity inside my black skin."

There are also some elements of this book that did take away from the story. First of all, I was somewhat confused in the beginning because I was overwhelmed with characters and their descriptions. It was hard to remember the characters, and I wasn't sure which ones were important or main characters. Some of Braithwaite's descriptions are also hard to decipher. For example, he would often describe the beauty and maturity of Pamela Dare, a student in his class. As the story progresses, Mr. Braithwaite's intentions with Pamela become unclear. On page 212, he describes Pamela when she arrives at the senior party. "She presented a picture of sheer beauty and I gazed at her in wonder." Lastly, because this story is based in Britain, I had a hard time following some of the conversations. Braithwaite also used words like Cockney, which is a British dialect of East End Londoners, glibness, and cheek by jowl. I discovered that glibness was used to describe the shallowness of Gillian's parents, and cheek by jowl is an expression, meaning tightly packed. I don't blame the author for this, but I felt that I missed out on the full effect of the story because I didn't read with a British accent.

To Sir, with Love is definitely a book I would recommend to someone probably high school level or older. I think anyone who reads this story will walk away with a broader view on life and how he or she lives it. The quotes Braithwaite uses will really make you think, and his words will stay engraved in your mind. I am someone who was never ridiculed for the color of my skin, or where I was from, which is why it is so interesting to read from someone who had to face prejudices on a regular basis. The most memorable and thought-provoking concept E. R. Braithwaite wrote was on page 45. "I realized at that moment that I was British, but evidently not a Briton, that fine differentiation was now very important". This was the reason he could not live normally. This quote also encourages me to reflect on whether or not I'm American. However, the difference between Braithwaite and me is that he was never really accepted as a British citizen. He had thought of himself as someone who had the same rights as anyone else in the country, but then came to find that the unwritten rules of prejudices would soon take charge of his life.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Book, May 9, 2002

By 

Matalasi Sa (Houma,Tongatapu.TONGA ISLAND) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Sir With Love (Paperback)

As my teacher talk about this book.It's like that she explain the whole story to me.So i started search around for this book.
As i start read the story it tells me that the story is about a negro man,E.R.Braithwaite.This story of a western teachers trial and triumphs with a group of senior pupils in an over crowded London school is closely based on the authors own experiences in the east end.Written with charity and compassions,it clearly sets out some of the difficulties facing the many coloured people in England,and makes a moving plea for tolerance and mutual unterstanding.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It shows that people can change their ideas about each other, September 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: To Sir with Love (Paperback)

In the novel, both the teacher, Braithewaite, and his students end up going through many changes that ultimately result in their coming to change their way of thinking about each other. In life, as in this fictionalized account, the ability to adapt to the world around one's self is a very important trait.

In the story, Braithewaite begins with a set of preconceived ideas about his students. He expects them to be unintelligent, rough, racially intolerant children with no future-hardly deserving of his respect. But, as he sees later, they are are the total opposites of his initial ideas. This is gradually shown through their actions, such as such as the students all going to visit the house of their black friend during his crisis, or their learning to treat each other with respect;they learned to address each other as their last names, inthe case of the boys, and "Miss", for the girls. For the students,they learned to respect and really learn from their teacher,something they had never cared to do before. Braithewaite helped them to break out of the the pattern of intolerance and roughness that society had placed them in. This is a key point of the novel, this idea that people can change their ways.

In my own experiences, I have ended up changing my ways as I have become wiser. One example would be my relationship with my older sister. As a child, I constantly fought with her over everything and never tried tried to get to understand her. Gradually, though, as I grew older, I learned to accept and to understand her. Now, though we still argue about a lot of things, I feel my relationship with her has improved;I now look at her as a nice person with much to offer me, rather than as my "evil" sister.