"Bring Your Red Books to Class"
University School, Lower Campus As a rising 7th grader at University School in Shaker Heights, I was terrified of Seymour Richard Peyser. He was known as a staunch grammarian and a steadfast disciplinarian who tolerated no nonsense in his English composition classes. For all that, “Peyser,” as some students disrespectfully called him, was the butt of many jokes. There were rumors (false) that someone crawled under his desk and tied his leather shoes together. There were other rumors (patently false) that his car, an MG, was brought in through a window during a study hall to shock him when he entered the room. The only prank I witnessed was students moving their lips and pretending to speak to him, making him turn up his hearing aid. During morning assemblies (or “Chapel,” as we called it back then), Mr. Peyser pressed the hidden button under the stage in the lunchroom to ring a bell and remind students to “Bring your red books to class.” The stout red books were Warriner’s English Gram...
