I feel like I’m entering prison,” local author M. Clabeaux writes of arriving at his first teaching job, “unsure if I’m warden or inmate.” The next nine months, however, leave little doubt in this reader’s mind that the latter would be a more accurate assessment. Through a series of classroom vignettes, My First Year in Purgatory paints a vivid portrait of an embattled teacher on the front lines of urban public education…right here in Buffalo.

Yes, Clabeaux is an art teacher at “Rust Belt Public,” a broken school system that bears a striking resemblance to our own, though he never explicitly says so. (He teaches at “Grand Plans Middle & Elementary, which, similar to our own Futures Academy, is located in the heart of a neighborhood called the Fruit Belt.) His daily routine consists of trying to control unruly kids who rarely hesitate to call him names (“Shut the fuck up, you bald-headed freak!”), and frequently use him for art supply target practice. While discipline problems are nothing new in public schools, what makes Clabeaux’s account particularly insightful—and chilling—is the complete lack of support he and his fellow teachers get from school administrators. It’s a backwards system, where a teacher who degrades his students to keep order is rewarded and deference is paid to the loudest, meanest students. Only a couple of months into the school year, Clabeaux gets “the last moment of total backup [he] will ever receive in four years of teaching.”

In the end, Clabeaux arrives at the conclusion that Buffalo’s discipline problem is systemic. Everyone—teachers and administrators included—is discouraged from disciplining problem children in order to maintain the outward appearance of control and, finally, to keep his job. In other words, all the troubles are swept under the rug, and the whole system suffers as a result. At one particularly low point, he even sticks a note on his refrigerator that reads, “Tough it out and get your money.” Clabeaux’s stories shed light on the alarming statistic that one-half of American urban teachers typically run screaming from the education field within five years. They also explain why few teachers were surprised by 2006’s violent assault on a teacher at Buffalo’s Performing Arts Academy, as he’s insulted and threatened daily by 10- and 12-year-olds who promise to “jaw” him. While Clabeaux’s prose could be stronger and grammatical errors aren’t uncommon, My First Year… should be put on the required reading list for every parent whose child attends public school in our city.

To order the book, visit myfirstyearinpurgatory.org, or visit lulu.com and perform a title search.

—peter koch