About the Author

Richard Friedman has written eight books (and counting) of political cartoons. Prior to becoming an author, Richard had been a high school mathematics teacher and dabbled in the real estate profession selling commercial properties.

This is the first school I went to, PS 11 in the Bronx. It is now designated as a historic school. Not because I went there, but because the original first building was built in 1889. I have memories of desks with ink wells before the invention of the ball-point pen and of oil lamps in the corridors.

This is the high-school I went to: DeWitt Clinton, in the Bronx.
My best day there…that May afternoon when my college advisor informed me of my acceptance into The City College of New York.
With my grades and SAT score composite making it in by just one-sixth of a point. My family could never have afforded even a State School in those days!

This is Baruch College Of The City University Of New York where I graduated with a BBA in industrial psychology. In essence, after great effort, I had not been able to find a job in the business world and resolved myself to remaining a cab driver, a job I’d been doing since I was 18. Even my mother had stopped bugging me: previously she would tease me that I should “ hang my diploma in my taxicab”!

The private car service catered to people in the general East Yonkers area, along Central Avenue, who would call from their homes for transportation to and from local schools, shopping areas, restaurants, etc., as well as airports and places in New York City or Long Island.

I remained at this job working full time six days a week from 7AM until 7PM until the day I received a call from my dispatcher to pick up a fare at Walt Whitman Junior High School. There I stumbled on a wide- open classroom window with a teacher giving what appeared to be an algebra lecture. I stood there observing for a while, and saw myself in that position. And began the road to my career as a high school math teacher.