Teacher Man : A Memoir

Frank McCourt

Frank McCourt had to retire before he wrote a best selling book, Angela's Ashes. Suddenly he had fame and recognition. Yet where was the recognition he should have earned from his life's work, teaching high school students and young adults? He uses this memoir to tell the story of his life as an Irish teacher in the New York City School for 30 years.

McCourt's life wasn't easy as a teacher - he often felt he was a fraud. Yet he loved his job despite the hardships. At times people told him about moving up in the system to administration. That wasn't what he wanted - he wanted to teach. His home life hovers in the background of the book and the reader can tell it wasn't a happy comfortable home life. Yet it doesn't intefere or take over the story of the years teaching.

McCourt wasn't a rote teacher - which lost him more than one job. He never did learn how to diagram a sentence - a cornerstone of English grammar education during his tenure. His education plans included taking his class of black teen agers to see Cold Turkey in the downtown movie theater. Soon after the same unruly class attended a play of Hamlet. Part of their lesson evolved into comparing and contrasting the two stories.

The latter part of his teaching career was spent teaching creative writing in Stuyvesant High School, possibly the most prestigious high school in the New York City Public School system. His students read cookbooks out loud. They wrote excuse notes from Adam and Eve to God. His classes were well attended, much to his own surprise. McCourt explains his own lack of self confidence and respect through his Irish Catholic personality. When he retired, one of his students urged him to do what he always wanted them to do - write a book. Fortunately, he took that advice.

This book is an interesting self examination book as well as an insight into the darker, poorer side of the public school system. McCourt is a good story teller and makes the moods of the different classrooms felt by the reader. I never quite got caught up in it. I often found myself influenced McCourt from the little mentioned background story of his life. That tended to cast a pall over the rest of the book for me. Teacher Man is a window to show us the work needed in the school system - or is it a window to show us what can happen with the right guidance from a perceptive teacher.