Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher’s First Year

The diary begins with Esme, age twenty-four and newly certified in teaching, being hired to teach fifth grade at an unnamed and brand-new public school in Chicago. She reacts to interview questions with irreverent humor. Asked “[w]hat would you do if a child said fuck in your classroom?”,she chuckles, then responds, “[f]aint dead away!” (4). Esme is surprised to be offered the job. The school itself is still under construction, so she spends much of the summer preparing for the opening of the facility with the principal, a fifty-five-year-old African-American man named Mr. Turner. Esme’s relationship with Mr. Turner is tense, as he initially refuses to call her by her preferred name (Madame Esme, not Mrs. Codell) and violates her privacy by calling her at home late at night and asking about her romantic life. Esme notices and is troubled by Mr. Turner’s condescending tone towards female workers. She also feels that he is badly out of touch with the community, demonstrated most dramatically when he goes door to door, trying to solicit donations for the school. She finds many of the other teachers to be closed-minded and depressingly cynical when she shares ideas with them that she feels passionately about.