Nothing But the Truth: Chapters 7–11

Dad loves seafood. He said I could have anything on the menu but lobster. Had a couple of hamburgers and fries. He was sore. I wish people would say what they mean.

As much as I would like to be supportive, and while I can wholeheartedly approve of your desire to take the workshop “New Approaches to the Teaching of Literature for Today’s Students,” I am afraid I cannot give it formal approval.

The problem, as you may have foreseen, is severely limited district money.

Such funds as are available for teacher support of this nature have already been allocated.

Finally, with a budget crisis at hand—the budget vote looms large—it’s hard to plan anything at this time.

I do want to say, on a personal level, how much I admire your willingness to expand your intellectual and teaching horizons.

Philip, I think I’ve suggested before that your comments can be tiresome.

Did you look at Phil’s grades. I left them on the bureau.

I told him bickering happens in a marriage. It's perfectly normal. Life isn't a sitcom.

If it were a case of no money available for anyone, why, I could accept that. But, no, a certain Kimberly Howard, who has been here for only two years, and who has a husband who works for some large corporation, she received money! And for some idiotic course in marching-band music! It makes me outraged to think about it.

Call it pride, call it vanity, but I would like some respect for all I have done here.

The truth is it’s our superintendent’s doing. There is a second budget vote coming up.

He sent out a memo to everybody warning us that it might fail again. Almost a threat. He is a very political person. But then, all he wants is to keep his job.

He claimed he always did it before.

School was so frantic today.

He was trying to talk, and you weren’t listening to him. Ben, you have to be more supportive!

In any case, it was so soothing to come home to that quiet, thoughtful, civilized British world.

Oh, Anita, I long to return to England someday, and those wonderful, leisurely late-afternoon cream teas.

Today was “Spring Changeover Day,” when our students, after six months of struggling to learn exactly where to go, are suddenly tossed pell-mell here, there, anywhere, as their schedules and homeroom assignments shift because of spring recreational schedules.

Of course, bedlam is always the result, with attendant bad feeling.

Of course, bedlam is always the result, with attendant bad feeling.

It's just at those moments that students rear up and challenge your authority.

One has to be vigilant and firm.

As well as consistent and fair.

That’s the key with students these days. And sometimes I haven’t the stamina for it.

Philip, stop this insolence!

Let’s try to be more specific, Philip. I want to hear your side of the problem.

I’ve got more important things to do with my time than argue with you about following simple, basic rules. I've got serious infractions.

Look, Ben, it was just a botched job, that's all.

Superintendent Seymour has us writing position papers, speaking to chamber of commerce groups...the Rotary club.

There is a direct statistical tie-in—that is, those students who have taken an English class with you, Peg, score higher on the Iowa tests, the Stanfords, and the SAT verbals.

Some job estimate that went wrong.

So you see, Anita, it was gratifying to hear Gertrude talk this way to me, exactly the kind of support teachers need.

Many teachers have almost nothing good to say about their administrators, complaining that they fail to support them, much less grasp the complexities of the classroom situation, or that they show only slight concern about their problems.

I was being patriotic. That's all. It's a free country.