STORY 19: "THE SCHOOL" BY DONALD BARTHELME

Donald Barthelme (April 7, 1931 – July 23, 1989) was an American short story writer and novelist known for his playful, postmdenist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a newspaper reporter for the Houston Post, was managing editor of Location magazine, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston (1961–1962), co-founder of Fiction (with Mark Mirsky  and the assistance of Max and Marianne Frisch), and a professor at various universities. He also was one of the original founders of the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. 

                                                                    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Barthelme)

"The School" was originally published in 1974 in The New Yorker, where it is available to subscribers. You can also get a free copy of the story at National Public Radio (NPR). 

Barthelme's story is short—only about 1,200 words—and really funny and darkly funny, so it's worth reading on your own.

The story achieves much of its humor through escalation. It begins with an ordinary situation everyone can recognize – a failed classroom gardening project. But then it piles on so many other recognizable classroom failures that the sheer accumulation becomes preposterous.

                    (https://www.thoughtco.com/analysis-the-school-by-donald-barthelme-2990474)