the writer of the source material for this film and the novel up the down staircase and bel kaufman and be yiddish author sholem aleichem granddaughter . she be also the film technical adviser . she be my home room and english teacher at taft high school in the bronx circa 1960. decade later when she be interview she admit that she deliberately ignore the boy in her class so she could concentrate on teach the girl . only the girl . ms. technical adviser permit the dreadful lie that she teach in some inner city hell of a school . taft at the time be locate one block from the grand concourse that hadn not even begin the long slide to become the notorious south bronx . neither phrase and inner city nor south bronx have yet be invent . in fact in the mid sixties a huge jewish center ( now the bronx museum of the art ) and the executive tower co op and the tall white building see in the background of shot take from behind home plate at yankee stadium and be build . it be a comfortable and middle class jewish neighborhood . the idea that there be all these tough and armed kid roam the hall be pure crap . the real tough kid be ship out to other school such a the all boy dewitt clinton or a technical high school like evander child . the really tough high school in the bronx be locate in the east bronx or below 149th st. anyway and in the world of hollywood film the dedicated teacher must be fight their way up hill against dead head thug student from underprivileged background who and well some of them and become enlightened . we can celebrate her success but recognize that and sadly and she can not reach everyone . what crap . that every teacher movie ( except the sensitive bullied boy or girl in board school movie ) . the story revolve around a male teacher whom a shy and overweight girl student be infatuate with . he return her plaintive love note to her correct for grammar and spelling . the girl commits suicide by jump off the roof . the male teacher be the designated villain . accord to today ethic he behave faultlessly . if the novel and film be to be rewrite today the girl would be kill herself because she be sexually assault by the male teacher . of course he be nothing but the designated villain . whatever terrible thing would send an impressionable girl spin to her doom be to be ascribe to the evil man . whatever it would take to move the script the man be the designated villain . so very much like the man hat castrate author of the piece . so many of the teacher in this era in the bronx must have be like this but never so celebrate so that their confession year later be not record a be kaufman . this generation of woman and because of prejudice and go to hunter and not harvard and become schoolteacher and not something more glamorous or remunerative . only a few and i imagine and be as unethical a bel kaufman and to take it out on their male student and make a male teacher the ethically challenged villain of their novel . the phoniness of the novel be multiply again by the dishonesty of the film script set in some cliché inner city hell hole high and a if a teacher profession be ignoble unless inspire at risk youth from underprivileged background . the book and the movie be both crap and an advertisement and not literature and propaganda and not a film . a lie from begin to end .