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September 7, 2008

Down the up staircase

Anisha Lakhani’s “Schooled” was the most entertaining and informative novel I read on vacation over the past two weeks.
While the cover makes the book appear to be another frothy chick lit novel, Lakhani delivers a scathing satirical glimpse into the world of the private schools attended by the children of Manhattan’s richest parents.
The mix of expose and humor reminded me of that 1960s blockbuster novel, “Up the Down Staircase,” by a New York public schoolteacher named Bel Kaufman.
Kaufman targeted the bureacracy of public schools 40 years ago in her winning tale of a new teacher struggling to cope with an assignment at a tough Manhattan school. The novel became one of the biggest best-sellers of its time and inspired a popular (albeit slightly watered down) 1967 film version starring Sandy Dennis.
“Schooled” is a gloves-off journey into a world where rich dopes cruise through schools by hiring “tutors” who actually do most of the kids’ homework and papers.
Lakhani’s initially naïve heroine Anna Taggert enters an East Side private school with dreams of being a great teacher, but quickly runs into resistance from the administration, the parents and the students, none of whom appreciate the newcomer’s idealism and determination to inspire her students.
Anna realizes her pauper’s wages will not go far in the slice of New York City in which she lives — and that her budget-minded fashions will not play in a world that combines the most shallow and materialistic aspects of “Gossip Girl” and “Sex and the City.”
Anna soon gets sucked into the subculture of high-paying tutoring that afford her a new lifestyle and, ironically, greater respect from nearly everyone in the school.
Here’s the teacher’s reaction after a meeting with the agent who arranges private lessons: “I floated down Park Avenue like Peter Pan on crack. I gave the doorman a mad grin as I was leaving. He looked a little scared. Jesus H. Christ. If I did as Francine suggested and charged $200 an hour, I would be making a minimum of $600 a week. That would be $2,400 a month. That was more than my monthly teaching salary. I could eat! I could shop! I could pay my rent on time! What had just happened?…It was like the skies had opened and rained money on me.”
The teacher quickly schedules even more tutoring sessions and is able to shop at Barneys and dine at the chicest restaurants in Manhattan. Of course, Anna eventually sees the error of her ways, but not before Anisha Lakhani completes her devastatingly funny and horrifying glimpse into “education” on the Upper East Side.

Posted by Joe on September 7, 2008 4:31 PM

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Posted by: Anisha Lakhani at September 28, 2008 11:44 AM

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