How did the Braithwaite introduce himself
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As Braithwaite walks through the hallways, he is nearly knocked over by several students running out of a classroom. He knocks and enters to see what is happening, only to find forty students unattended. By their dress and demeanor, they seem to be well aware of their maturing bodies. Everything is “a bit soiled and untidy, as if too little attention were paid to washing either themselves or their flashy finery.”
When Braithwaite enters, he is accosted by students wondering if he is the replacement for their teacher, Mr. Hackman, or “Old Hack.” Hack left the room and went to the staff room, telling his students to send someone for him when they were ready to behave, and they wonder if Braithwaite has come to take his place. As they surround him, he tells them he will check on Mr. Hackman. This is not what he imagined when he thought of his first teaching job. There are no neat rows of desks filled with students eager to learn.
Braithwaite leaves the class room and goes to the staff room. On the way, he meets the student who nearly knocked him over coming out of the room. A rather untidy man greets Braithwaite and immediately makes a joke about his color. Braithwaite introduces himself and says he is from the Divisional Office; he is told that Hackman was here but left shortly after arriving and is probably registering his complaints with the Divisional Officer. Mrs. Grace Dale-Evans enters and begins cleaning up the staff lounge. She asks Braithwaite if this is his first teaching job and if he has been in the military; he tells her he was in the Royal Air Force. She invites him to eat lunch at the school, and he accepts.
The staffroom is full of miscellany and is almost as dingy as the outside surroundings. As he walks out of the building and into the courtyard, he sees litter everywhere and finds the place as depressing as a prison. At lunch, the teachers sit at a table slightly separated from the students. Headmaster Florian prays for the entire room and then the noisy business of lunch begins. Each person at each table is assigned a job, and the meal is conducted efficiently and finished quickly. When Florian stands, there is a hush before he signals to each table its permission to leave. Soon the sound of dance music emanates from the auditorium. Miss Clintridge explains that students are allowed to turn the room into a dance hall for forty-five minutes each day. Sometimes even the teachers join them.
Weston speaks up and says that dancing for these students is not a simple, innocent pastime. Instead, the “energetic morons” are using dance as their voluntary exercise to stay fit for their primary pastime—“teacher-baiting.” The ladies tell Braithwaite to ignore their colleague’s joking and scold him for being so discouraging. Weston assures them he wants the new man to stay. Braithwaite decides to observe the dancing.
These students are very good dancers, and the girls take great pleasure at showing their legs to the appreciative boys. The red-headed girl with whom he had nearly collided this morning asks him to dance, but Braithwaite mumbles a no and weaves his way through the gyrating crowd. He is “disturbed and excited at the prospect and challenge of having to cope with such nearly adult individuals.”
He meets with the headmaster, and Florian asks him immediately if this is someplace he wants to work. When Braithwaite, with controlled enthusiasm, says yes, Florian outlines his policies for this school. He explains that most of these students are classified as “difficult” because they have defied or disregarded the more traditional forms of authority found in most schools. Here, he says, they should not be forced or restricted by “arbitrary whim.” These are students who come from disadvantaged homes, and it is his hope.