Up The Down Staircase

20. Life Situation

FTG again—Oct. 9

Dear Ellen,

Your letter gave me the lift I needed; I was beginning to think I wasn't communicating with anyone! My students have come to me so empty-handed that I don't know where to start, or what to give them, or how to fill in the gaps.

The other day Bester popped into my SS (special-slow) class, and I gave an emergency composition to be written in class. The topic was "My Best Friend," and as I read the papers, I wondered: How do I correct them? What do I correct? Spelling? Punctuation? The inarticulate loneliness between the lines? I don't know where to start, or whether to laugh or cry. Perhaps the two are the same.

And I'm not communicating literature to them either. I saw that when I gave a quiz on mythology.

That leaves just you and me. I loved your account of the painters redecorating your bedroom. Certainly, you should stand pat on pale blue and mauve; don't let them get away with buff!

In the same mail came a letter from Mattie, telling me of a February vacancy at Willowdale. Very tempting. It's a small college where I could get an appointment even without a PhD. Trouble is—I like high-school kids; I chose to teach them; I feel they need me. Especially a boy like Ferone.

I look up his PRC. That's the Permanent Record Card kept for each student throughout his years in high school; it includes marks, IQ tests, aptitude tests, personality ratings, teachers' evaluations, percentile curves, notes, letters, affidavits, interviews, truant officer's reports—the history of a child encapsuled in a folder.

His IQ is 133; his marks last term: 65, 20, F, 94, 45. The 94 is in Social Studies. The 20 is in English. I marvel: why 20? why not 18? or 33? or 92? Is it based on his thinking, feeling, punctuation, absence, self-expression, memory, insolence? And where on the percentile curve does he fit? Or a girl like Alice? Or a boy like Eddie? What mark does Eddie get for the way the white world has treated him? Or Alice—for the fantasies the movies have fed her? Or I—or even I?

On the left of the blue line are Attitude Ratings for Citizenship, Cooperation, Cleanliness, Leadership Potential—to be marked from 1 to 5. Ferone's average is 1 1/2. Getting along with Peers=Good; Getting along with Teachers=Poor.

Next to that—'Disciplined on the following dates," and a long list, ending with "Obscene language in auditorium."

On the right of the blue line are the CC's—Capsule Characterizations. At the end of each term, each teacher enters a succinct phrase for each student. "Should try harder" is the favorite.

I glance through other PRC's.

"fine boy"

"fine boy"

"should try harder"

"fine boy"

This is the defeated looking Puerto Rican boy whose name no one remembers and who signs himself: Me. (He wished himself a happy birthday in my Suggestion Box.) I make sure of his name: Jose Rodriguez.

The CC's are followed by the PPP's—Pupil Personality Profiles—devised by Miss Friedenberg—a self-appointed Freud. These are based on her interviews with the kids, and are phrased in pseudoanalese. Ferone "should channel his libidino-aggressive impulses into socially acceptable attitudes." Vivian Paine "suffers from malfunctioning of the ego due to compulsive obesity." Lou Martin "exhibits inverted hostility in manic behavior-patterns." Eddie Williams "must curb tendency to paranoia due to socioeconomic environmental factors." Rusty, the woman-hater "shows signs of latent homosexuality induced by narcissistic mother and permissive masturbatory practices." Alice Blake "is well balanced and integrated."

Occasionally, among the inanities in the PRC's, are sudden entries of teachers with insight and a desire to help; entries of after-school conferences with kids, home visits, extra tutoring, honest attempts to deal with their problems. But they are rare.

Right now, I feel, is the most critical time in the children's lives—their last chance to turn into what they will eventually be. And so many are lost to us forever! Statistics on dropouts are staggering. What has become of those kids, and where are they now?

Ferone isn't a statistic. Eddie Williams isn't a statistic. Jose Rodriguez (I remembered his name!) isn't a statistic. And there isn't much Calvin Coolidge is offering them.

Under Reasons for Dropouts, teachers have written:

"Business opportunity."

"Financial need."

"Further development of experiential possibilities."

But I went directly to the source: I asked my own students to write me honestly why they wanted to leave school. I am enclosing a few of their notes:

I dont go for school, if you're a color person it's all a lot of lies, nobody does like they do in books. At lease in my experience. And teachers, they're no better than parents, either too busy or yelling their heads off. And all prejudice.

Edward Williams, Esq.

I know school is supposed to help me with my life, but so far it didn't.

Rusty

When I turn 17 my father says why should he feed an extra mouth. Ha-ha, that's me!

Lou Martin

We must look "behind the books" in school. This shows we "American boys" are concerned not with "swalling" things they way they are given to us without looking at the contents of the bottle and seeing what it contains. In these "atomic days" you never know when "America" will call on its young men so we must learn to think for themselves. Not being "hoodwinked" like our forfathers in the war. But mine wants me to stay in school.

Chas. H. Robbins

The more time in school the less time to make $.

Dropout

To be honest I tell you I have more trouble with my mother because she is a sick lady and there is no one to take care of her untill I come home from school. She's got heart trouble so she can be here today and gone tomorrow thats why there isn't much use for me to do a lot of school work because there other things in life like a job for a living. After all some day I’ll get married and I have to take mother to live with me and my wife so what's the use of school.

Failing

The teachers hate me.

Vivian Paine

I know my father passed away a year ago and my mother is of course nervous about it so I want to make plenty of it to be my own boss.

Ambitious

I'm nobody especial so nobody knows me, maybe I’ll be somebody with a job.

Me

Give me one good reason why I should stay.

Joe Ferone

…

I, too, want to look "behind the books." I want to give Ferone several good reasons why he should stay. And I understand that when Vivian says the teachers hate her, she means that she hates the teachers—or rather, herself. The PRC tells me nothing. The kids do. Let me tell you about Jose, for example.

Myths and their Meaning polished off, my SS class was given a collection of simple contemporary short stories; fortunately, there was a surplus in the Book Room. The first one dealt with a child who was allergic to sweets, his mother, who had admonished him never to eat them, and a good-hearted but misguided neighbor who believed the child's stories about his cruel mother and his deprivations, and who fed him sweets until he became violently ill. The mother threatened to sue the neighbor. End of story.

The discussion I started in class—about good intentions and responsibility—proved so lively, that I decided to follow it up with a dramatization. I asked them to come prepared the next day to transform the classroom into a courtroom; we would plead the case, as a sequel to the story. Reminding them to familiarize themselves with the people and the situation in the story and to remain in character during the improvised court session, I assigned the roles: mother, father, neighbor, child, prosecuting attorney (Harry Kagan, of course!) defense attorney, witnesses for the defense and the prosecution, even the doctor. I realized that we had left out the judge. Through one of those swift moments of inspiration, I turned to Jose Rodriguez and asked him to be prepared to act the judge. A few in the class snickered; Jose nodded; and I myself had no idea what to expect.

The following day he appeared in class in a cap and gown—a black graduation gown and mortarboard, borrowed or rented at what trouble or expense I could only guess, and a large hammer for a gavel. He bore a look of such solemn dignity that no one dared to laugh.

He sat at my desk and said: "The court clerk is supposed to say they gotta rise."

There was such authority in his voice that slowly, one by one, the class rose. It was a moment I don't think I will ever forget.

The class was directed to sit down, and the wheels of justice proceeded to turn. The prosecution and the defense testified; witnesses were called, examined, cross-examined; excitement ran high. When anyone spoke out of turn, Jose would pound on the desk with his hammer: "This here court will get quiet. Call the next witness. You keep quiet, or you'll be charged with contempt."

He overruled every objection: "Maybe I'm stupid, but I'm the judge and you gotta listen."

And when Harry Kagan challenged him on court procedure, he said, with quiet assurance: "I ought to know. I been."

The court ruled for the defense.

When the bell rang, Jose slowly removed his cap and gown, folded them neatly over his notebook, and went on to his next class; but he walked as if he were still vested in judicial robes.

I don't think he will ever be quite the same.

And that's it; that's why I want to teach; that's the one and only compensation: to make a permanent difference in the life of a child.

The Willowdale offer is not so tempting, after all.

Love,

Syl

P.S. Did you know that out of the 77,000 dropouts in New York City 90% are Negroes and Puerto Ricans?

S.

21. Bulletin Board, Room 304

MISS BARRET'S CLASSES

(USE LEFT SIDE OF BULLETIN BOARD ONLY)

"THOSE WHO EDUCATE CHILDREN WELL ARE MORE TO BE HONORED THAN PARENTS, FOR THESE ONLY GAVE LIFE, THOSE THE ART OF LIVING WELL."

ARISTOTLE

LOST & FOUND

LOST: Green plad jacket, tore lining broke zipper. Urgent need!

Lou Martin

LOST: Make Up kit imitation red aligator.

Linda Rosen

LOST: "Hollywood Horoscope of Stars" magazine. Reward ....

Alice Blake

LOST: (Or stole!!!) My left lense from my eyeglases between here and History.

Edward Williams, Esq.

LOST: Poster, printed with Indian Ink, saying that Government of the Students, by the Students, for the Students, shall not perish from Calvin Coolidge.

Harry A. Kagan The Students Choice

FOUND:

BEST STUDENT SAMPLES:

"The Theater of the Absurd and All the Angry Young Men"

A Comparative Study

by Elizabeth Ellis

If there is a connection between absurdity and despair, and I believe there is, then Edward Albee, John Osborne, Harold Pinter and Arthur Kopit are all brothers trapped under the same skin. In examining both the symptoms and the more obvious manifesta

(cont. on next page)

Excellent as always!

SPELING QUIZ ? 100%

Vivian Paine

1. accept

2. acquainted

3. advice

4. artichoke

5. ascend

"READING MAKETH A FULL MAN, CONFERENCE A READY MAN, AND WRITING AN EXACT MAN."

SIR FRANCIS BACON

HUMOR

St. Peter: "Who is knocking at my gate?"

Voice: "It is I."

St. Peter: "Go away, we don't need any more school teachers here!"

Teacher: "There are two words in the English language you must never use. One of them is swell and the other is lousy."

Pupil: "What are they?

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Experiencd Baby Sitter. Apply Office 211.

MISS LEWIS' CLASS

(USE RIGHT SIDE OF BULLETIN BOARD ONLY)

(USE RIGHT SIDE OF BULLETIN BOARD ONLY)

THE 3 C's CHARACTER + CONFLICT = CLIMAX

THE 5 E's: EXAMINE, EVALUATE, EXPRESS, ELUCIDATE, END

"CUE" = COHERENCE, UNITY, EMPHASIS

BEST STUDENT SAMPLES:

TRUE OR FALSE TEST - 100%

Kurt Werner

1. T

2. F

3. F

4. T

5. T

6. F

7. T

8. F

9. F

10. T

COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN:

Paper Distribution Committee—Luis Ramos

Blackboard Committee—Judy Thornwald

Sanitary Committee—Sybelle Klopotkin

Room Traffic Committee—Wong Gee

CLASS ACHIEVEMENT GRAPH;

22. A Probing Question

INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION

FROM: 304

TO: 508

Dear Bea—

Thank you for letting me observe your Senior Honors and Creative Writing classes; it was worth giving up my unassigned and lunch periods to see! How wonderful to hear a discussion of Hamlet’s relationship to Ophelia on such an adult level! Their insights, their involvement, their comments on their outside reading were a revelation to me. And your Creative Writing class made me aware of how much is going on inside them; how serious and yet how touchingly young they are. I wanted to hug each and every one of them. And you.

I realize these are specially selected groups, the cream off the top, but at least I know that this kind of student exists, and this kind of teaching is possible.

Can we meet for a few minutes? I'm bursting to talk to you about it!

(You promised to let me see the paragraphs they were writing in class.)

Enviously,

Syl

INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION

FROM: 508

TO: 304

Dear Syl,

Never mind the cream; it will always rise to the top. It's the skim milk that needs good teachers.

Enclosed are a few of their papers; I haven't corrected them yet.

Sorry can't meet you now: Am with child.

Bea

MRS. SCHACHTER’S CREATIVE WRITING CLASS ASSIGNMENT:

Write one paragraph, asking a probing question on any topic you wish. Give it a suitable title. Remember what you’ve learned about the use of imagery in conveying emotion.

THE WORLD'S INDIFFERENCE

Stink and stench assailled his nostrils as he reeled drunkenly into the room. The whisky lay heavy in his gut. His belly rumbled. "I think I'll puke", he thought. But by then they had him. Handcuffs, the works. "Why?" he shouted from his very gut. "Why me?" But the world kept rolling along.

SPRING REMEMBERED

I remember Spring. The lilacs and the stars. The rose and the dew. You and the night. I remember. I remember holding hands beneath the moon which was suspended like a silver locket upon a chain of stars from the neckline of a cloud. I remember the leaves whispering like lacy gossips in the trees. I remember the lake lapping. I remember how sharp like a thorn was love. Why do I not remember your Name?

IMAGES

I see the cat. The cat is on the mat. I can spell cat. But what is cat? That is the question! The cat is a fog or smudgey smoke from a cigarette or a purry furry ball or a tiger ready to spring at you. You never know.

LIFE, BE NOT PROUD

Life, be not proud, thou hast made many mistakes tho thou hadst had a chance to be beautiful, yet thou hadst fouled it up. Why is there sufering and troubles galore? Why is there man's inhumanity to man? Why is there prejudice between all the races? Why is there jails and hoor houses and lynches and unemployment? Why is there death? Life, be not proud!

SNOW

The snow lies on mountain and dale like a naked woman exposing its glistering white body voluptously and proud of her nakedness under the warm sun. Soon the warm sun will melt it. What then?

THE SUBWAY

The subway is a monster giant snake that crawls inside the Bowels of the Earth, emerging to vomit forth its food at the different stations. It then swallows another belly full of us to crawl into the Bowels where darkness dwells. Who knows when it will re-emerge again?

WHY DO I LOVE?

Brown throated is my love and potent are his groins and laughing are his long lashed eyes. The songs he sings are many. His lips, insistent with passion's flame, are smooth upon my young mouth. Although my love doth walk with feet of clay upon my heart, I do not care: I love. Why do I love? I know not. I only know I love.

LIFE REFLECTED IN THE TELEVISION EYE

I see the television eye. It does not see me albeit I scream jump laugh weep rant rage stick out my tongue at it. Within the television eye, among the shadows and the horizontal streaks the little people live and love and eat and die interupted by commercials. While I, yes I, posess the power to turn them off whenever I feel like it. Just so to God are we as they, for Lo! He can stop our mouths while in the middle of a sentence and snap our hearts in twain. His Eye sees us albeit we do not see Him. What is God?—God is the Universal Antenna.

THE FUTURE?

The question I ask can never be answered while in the proccess of being asked. For I inquire about the Future. And only the Future can tell about itself. Is it there for us? We're a fast breed because we don't know if there is time ahead or total anihilation of Man. I sometimes wonder, what will become of me and my forthcoming children?

*

ACENTUATE THE POSITIVE

Who?

What?

When?

Where?

Why?

How?

O foolish ? mark, it doesn't matter. What matters is the ! To ? is to be told how bad you are and various problems better not to know. So only live with !

TO WHAT SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO?

You are to me a Sunday morning smelling of frying bacon and promises of more. You are to me a racing car at 95 miles per hr. that no one else has. You are to me a lazy curtesan in her feminine bed room with ostrich feathers fanning her brow. You are to me a fresh meadowland. You are to me the sounds of the City that spell a band of gypsies with tamburines and hunking cars and tooting trucks’ symphony or the hot beat of Rock n Roll that jerks a thousand feet. You are to me the end of the line. But what am I to you?

INTEGRATION

They speak of Integration. It's a word. What does it mean: a bus? a cop? a school? a headline? a tomstone? a neighbor's fight? a parent's yells? a speech? a boycot? a politician? It's all the same to me for words are only words. Yet deep and dark, deeper than any well and darker than any skin something lies and slumbers. Unburry it and hearken what it says. A simple truth: My brother.

UNTITLED

To be

Or not to be—

By this

I mean:

To be myself?

(Who am I though?)

Or else to be

What my parents

(Alas, poor Yorik, I knew them well!)

Would like me to be

Because

Of their own regrets

Or

What the World expects?

(The choice is tough)

The rest is silence ....

* THE OLD MAN

The old man just stood there. Just stood. There. Where I was. A reproach? To my youth, perhaps. To my good health. His chest was sunk. His hands shook with palsy. Finished. Through. Finis. His sands of time had run. But mine had just begun. Someday I too. Not now. Not yet. Why, then, do I feel so guilty?

THE MURDERER

I saw him scuttling like a crook, making his fearful way, stelthy among the dirty dishes crustied with grease in the sink, bearing a morsle of food to his secret sons behind the drain board. How fearful were his eyes. Shall I kill him?

(Mrs. Schachter—Is it clear I am talking about a cockaroach?)

23. The Funny Sides

MONTHLY REPORT ON PHYSICAL CONDITION OF ROOM

ROOM: 304

TEACHER: s. BARRETT – OCT. 12

Door off hinge

Sliding wardrobe panel doesn't close; blackboard on it can't be used.

Book closet, back of room, broken; shelf splintered.

Window in back, right, broken.

Teacher's desk missing two drawers.

Radiator keeps clanging.

(Same conditions prevail as in last month's report, with addition of radiator. Hole in window getting bigger, though. Wind and rain blowing in. Also, glass

crunching underfoot.

S. Barrett

Dear Miss Barrett,

You have neglected to send in attendance sheet for today.

Sadie Finch

Chief Clerk

Dear Miss Finch,

The reason is that Linda Rosen chose to wear a pink sweater and fuchsia stretch pants to school this morning. She was seen by Mr. McHabe, who invited her to cool her heels in the office. She was also seen by the boys in my homeroom, who migrated en masse to her vicinity. Since we had no quorum, I couldn't take attendance. I will do so this afternoon—unless they have followed her like lemmings into the sea and are all drowned.

S. Barrett

FROM: JAMES J. MCHABE, ADM. ASST.

TO: Miss S. Barrett

Dear Miss Barrett,

All out of board erasers. All out of red pencils. Requisition for window-poles has been sent to the Board last spring—we must be patient.

There has been an epidemic of chalk-stealing. Please keep chalk under lock except when in use.

Can you use some posters? Still have left-over yellow on green TRUTH IS BEAUTY, also some black on white LEARNING=EARNING.

JJ McH

(A frivolous attitude and levity of tone towards attendance taking are unsuitable to the high seriousness of our profession.)

JJ McH

INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION

FROM: 304

TO: 508

Dear Bea—

Fired by my visit to your classes, I asked Dr. Bester if I might observe other English teachers, to learn more about techniques. Stony silence. I guess no one else is willing to be seen. (I was particularly eager to discover how Henrietta teaches Punctuation Traffic. I understand she uses a system of signals such as Stop, Go, Curves Ahead. . . .)

Had another run-in with J.J. McH., in connection with my levity. But I've got to hold on to my sense of humor—which is really a sense of proportion.

"You and Mrs. Schachter are the only teachers with humors in the entire school," a student said to me. "You see the funny sides, which makes it easier."

It makes it much easier. How can I take seriously such mimeographed absurdities as "Lateness due to absence," "High under-achiever," and "Polio Consent slips'?

Syl

INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION

FROM: 508

TO: 304

Dear Syl,

I’ll match yours any day with: "Please disregard the following."

Bea

FROM: JAMES J. MCHABE, ADM. ASST.

TO: ALL TEACHERS

YOUR WHOLE-HEARTED COOPERATION IS ESSENTIAL IN DISCOURAGING ILLEGITIMATE LATENESSES, SINCE THEY TAKE AWAY TIME FROM VALUABLE SCHOOL TIME. PENALTIES FOR INFRACTIONS MUST BE FOLLOWED THROUGH.

JJ McH

Admit to class: 9:30 A.M.

Lateness unexcused. Claims got lost in transit.

JJ McH

CIRCULAR # 59

PLEASE KEEP ALL CIRCULARS ON FILE, IN THEIR ORDER

TOPIC: TEACHERS' WELFARE

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED FEDERATION OF TEACHERS HAS ASKED THE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO SUPPORT LEGISLATION FOR HIGHER DEATH BENEFITS AND PENSIONS FOR TEACHERS WHO DIE OR ARE HURT IN THE LINE OF DUTY. YOUR SUPPORT OF THIS MEASURE IS NEEDED.

Miss Barrett,

Joseph Ferone of your official class was absent from Math this morning. He claims he was working for Mr. Grayson. Please discipline and enter on PRC.

Frederick Loomis

FROM: JAMES J. MCHABE, ADM. ASST.

TO: ALL TEACHERS

SINCE SCHOOL AIDES HAVE RELIEVED TEACHERS OF MANY NON-TEACHING ASSIGNMENTS, TEACHERS ARE REQUESTED TO REPORT TO THE OFFICE FOR FURTHER ASSIGNMENTS.

JJ McH

Dear Miss Barrett,

Joseph Ferone missed an important Physics test today because he was with Mr. Grayson. If you arrange for him to see me, I’ll be glad to make out another test for him.

Sincerely yours,

Marcus Manheim

INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION

FROM: P. Barringer, 309

TO: S. Barrett, 304

Sylvia!

Sorry I couldn't keep our date last night.

I enclose a peace-offering:

In a few days you'll be exposed, for the first time, to Open School.

It's an experience.

Model parents will visit model teachers in model classrooms.

Let's sing this to them, with apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan:

I am the very model of a modern teacher, well aware

Of all the new developments from Iowa to Delaware;

I've information sundry on my many students various

On all the graded levels of their tabulated areas.

(I go to lectures numerous to hear what all the Rumor is)

My back is full of callouses from my psychoanalysis

My head is full of insights and devoid of common fallacies.

The truant and the super-slow have my attention diligent;

I even have some time to give the normally intelligent!

There is more, but I'm due at rehearsal.

Last call: Will you, at least, join the chorus? Help with makeup? Sew costumes? Paint props?

Meet me, same time, at The Tavern?

Paul

TO: ALL TEACHERS

I HAVE NOTED AND OBSERVED IN ASSEMBLY THAT A NUMBER OF OUR STUDENTS SEEM UNCERTAIN OF THE WORDS OF OUR ALMA MATER SONG, "THE PURPLE AND GOLD." THERE SEEMS TO BE CONFUSION IN THE FIRST STANZA PARTICULARLY. TEACHERS ARE ADVISED AND URGED TO GO OVER THE WORDING WITH THEIR STUDENTS SO THAT THE SONG MAY BE SUNG AT THE NEXT AND SUBSEQUENT ASSEMBLIES WITH THE RIGHT AND PROPER FEELING AND ENUNCIATION. THE WORDS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

MAXWELL E. CLARKE,

PRINCIPAL

CIRCULAR # 61

PLEASE KEEP ALL CIRCULARS ON FILE, IN THEIR ORDER

TOPIC: HOMEWORK ADDENDUM

WE HAVE HAD AN EPIDEMIC OF UNPREPARED STUDENTS. A STUDENT UNPREPARED WITH HOMEWORK MUST SUBMIT TO HIS TEACHER, IN WRITING, HIS REASON OR REASONS FOR NEGLECTING TO DO IT. PLEASE KEEP THESE HOMEWORK EXCUSES ON FILE IN THE RIGHT-HAND DRAWER OF YOUR DESK.

JAMES J. MCHABE

ADM. ASST.

24. From the Right-Hand Drawer, Room 304

I know homework is essential to our well being, and I did it but I got into a fight with some kid on the way to school and he threw it in the gutter.

My dog chewed it up.

I didn't know we were supposed to do it.

I fell asleep on the subway because I stayed up all night doing my homework, so when it stopped at my station I ran through the door not to be late & left it on the seat on the subway.

The cat chewed it up and there was no time to do it over.

Why I Didn't Do It. When you tell us to bring a book report I do not like it because I have to go to the library and get a book to read it. It will take me about two month or more to read it and I have to owe money to them and it adds up. It isn't fair to the pocket, Ha-ha! In those hours when I have to read the book I can watch TV or play around or shoot a couple.

As I was taking down the assignment my ballpoint stopped.

I had to study French so didn't have time to study English.

I did it but left it home by mistake.

If a teacher wants to know something why doesn't she look it up herself instead of making we students do it? We benefit ourselves more by listening to her, after all, she's the teacher!

The baby spilled milk on it.

My brother took "my" homework instead of "his."

I have to work after school and they kept me til midnight.

The page was missing from my book.

Even though I brought in a legal note for absence he sent me back. That's why I'm unprepared.

I had to take care of my three siblings because my mother is in the hospital.

I lost my book & just found it.

There's no room in my house now my uncle moved in and I have to sleep in the hall and couldn't use the kitchen table.

Some one stole it.

I was sick and had to go to bed.

What homework?

My dog pead on it