To Sir, With Love

To Sir, with Love ( 1967) is a British film starring Sidney Poitier that deals with social issues in an inner city school, written and directed by James Clavell and based on a novel of the same name by E.R. Braithwaite.

The film is very much in a now-established genre in which an idealistic teacher is confronted with a class of cynical teenagers, disengaged from conventional schooling. it sets Poitier, a black teacher, in a predominantly white London school. The film touches on racial issues but concentrates on the usual tropes of teenage angst and inspirational leadership. The film portrays a sanitised and fictional Swinging London. Braithwaite's name is changed to Mark Thackeray. Although he holds a college degree in engineering, Thackeray can't find work in London where he lives. Ostensibly, this is because there are no openings, and because he's overqualified for anything less; Thackeray, however, suspects (correctly) that nobody will hire him because he's black. Finally, he lands a job teaching at a high school in the slums. On his first day, Thackeray is warned about the punkish and unteachable students who got their latest professor (the man Thackeray has been hired to replace) to leave the school in resignation.

Thackeray's class keeps getting disrupted by the students' letting their desks slam shut, switching chairs in the middle of lessons, walking in and out of the room without ever saying a word, passing around pornographic magazines in mid-lessons, and the like. (One student even wears sunglasses right in the classroom; Thackeray keeps taking them off for him.) Thackeray shrewdly presumes all of these things are being done just to make him lose control of himself. Soon enough, he does just that upon finding his students burning a tampon in the classroom's wood-stove. Abandoning his previous vow never to do so under any circumstances, Thackeray flies into a rage and shuts all the boys out of the classroom. Then he bellows at the girls about keeping certain things private, and what he (read: society) thinks of women who fail to keep those things private. Finally, Thackeray slams out of the classroom and retreats to the school's faculty office; he's more furious with himself than with his students, because he allowed them to get the better of him. At the same time, the youngsters he's been trying to teach are impressed by the fact that he didn't use dirty language with them, as did Thackeray's predecessor. Thackeray's is proving a much harder spirit to break than their last teacher's.

Thackeray completely changes his approach to these youngsters' education. He starts by throwing the textbooks into the wastebasket, since the students never use them anyhow. He then sets up an open discussion, during which the students may ask about anything they feel the need to know. Thackeray explains to his students that they will soon enter the world of adulthood, where they must stand or fall on their own. He hopes to prepare them for higher education...and also for careers, matrimony and/or parenting. Thackeray also urges his students to address people as "Sir," or "Madam," although he himself also answers to "Mr. Thackeray." (The youngsters had previously called him "Mate," and worse.) When some of the kids point out that they've grown up alongside each other and are already on familiar terms, Thackeray responds by saying that such gives all of them the right to be called "Sir" or "Madam." Sure enough, the entire class quickly comes to know Thackeray as "Sir."

At one point, Denham, the students' ringleader, challenges Thackeray to an impromptu boxing match in the gym, since Thackeray was a Golden Gloves contender, he should be a worthy opponent. Indeed, Thackery soon gets the upper hand by knocking the wind out of Denham with a single hook to the body. Thackeray helps Denham up and offers to help prepare him for a professional bout. Denham is surprised that Thackeray stopped after one blow, since the boy was clearly attempting to injure his teacher. Thackeray, however, informs Denham that responding in kind would have accomplished nothing for either of them.

Thackeray stresses the importance of self-respect to his students; if they don't care about themselves, they're never going to care about anybody. Accordingly, he takes them on a field trip to the local museum. The school opposes this, anticipating a riot. There is none. All of Thackeray's students conduct themselves the way he has treated them: like young adults.

A day later, Thackeray receives a job offer from a local engineering company. After due consideration, he plans to resign from the school following the graduation of the senior class he's been teaching. The faculty says they'll miss him a lot; after all, Thackeray has accomplished so much with those youngsters in so little time, a feat none of the other teachers dreamed possible.

One of Thackeray's female students asks to dance with him at their senior prom. He does, and she later performs a song she has written with him in mind: "To Sir with love." He is deeply moved by this.

On the last day of school, Thackeray bids farewell to his students and thanks them for being in his class. They thank him for being their teacher, and then depart. After everyone else has left, Thackeray is visited by an eleventh-grade boy and girl both of whom are as surly and sullen as Thackeray's previous students had been when they first met him. "I'm in your bleeding class next year," says the boy, who then shows himself out with the girl. Thackeray realizes that his work here is not finished after all; accordingly, he tears up the letter regarding the engineering job offer. Then he walks out of his classroom to make plans for the next semester.



******************************************************************************************
(Trivia)


The film's title song "To Sir, with Love", sung by Lulu, reached number one on the U.S. pop charts.


It was shot in London.


A television movie sequel, To Sir, with Love II, was released in 1996.





******************************************************************************************
(Book)
Ricardo Braithwaite, a British West Indian-born communications engineer, comes to Britain in 1939 for post-graduate studies, but enlists in the RAF. After being demobilized from the service, he is unable to find work in his profession due to anti-black racism, and is advised to look at teaching as a career. He is accepted and assigned to a tough school in London's East End, where teachers come and go frequently and the pupils are mostly rebellious and unwilling to learn.

After several false starts, Braithwaite starts to gain the confidence of the pupils, as well as his fellow teachers. He is attracted to Gillian Blanchard, another new teacher, and by the end of term, they are deeply in love and plan to marry.

*************************************************************************************
To Sir with Love

Those schoolgirl days, of telling tales and biting nails are gone,
But in my mind,
I know they will still live on and on,
But how do you thank someone,
Who has taken you from crayons to perfume?
It isn't easy, but I'll try,

If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters,
That would soar a thousand feet high,
To Sir, with Love

The time has come,
For closing books and long last looks must end,
And as I leave,
I know that I am leaving my best friend,
A friend who taught me right from wrong,
And weak from strong,
That's a lot to learn,
What, what can I give you in return?

If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start,
But I would rather you let me give my heart,
To Sir, with Love!

*************************************************************************************