Teacher Man: A Memoir

it was a paperback book in good condition. it was a gift. i'd already read the book. no surprises.

I was very disappointed while reading, "Teacher Man." I am a speech teacher working in Connecticut and I was hoping that this book would bring me some inspiration. Although Mr. McCourt tells his story in a very honest voice, the undertone is very negative. I kept reading on hoping for a moment of true culmination, when his teaching methods would evolve over time and his classroom would finally give him the respect that he deserves. Instead the story never goes anywhere and we find Mr. McCourt in a desperate struggle searching for self-acceptance from his students. The book made me deeply concerned about the teacher role-models that our children are facing in the school system.

This is a man who feels very vulnerable at the beginning of his teaching career. He even acknowledges to himself after a parent conversation, that deep down inside he feels like a fraud and wonders how on earth he can teach several New York Public School adolescents. These are very challenging classrooms he is teaching, and he is constantly analyzing how he can win over his students and motivate them to learn.

His past in Ireland and past hurts within his own childhood education have carried over into his views on teaching. He was given very strict discipline growing up, but almost to an extreme. "Mea Culpa"- "I am guilty". He is told growing up how he is a sinner, a "bad boy" at different points during his childhood. He decides that he never wants to instill this type of teaching philosophy for his own students and therefore, goes the complete other extreme.

This is the one area that I disagree with Frank McCourt. There needs to be a balance. I felt that there were too many times in which Frank let the classroom take control of things. He has an attitude that "It is us against them." We are in this together and a teacher needs to stick together with his students (almost like a friend). It is us against the higher-ups, the principal, the adminstrators.

While I appreciate how much he wants to help these students and his very creative way of teaching many lesson plans (comparing a pen to the structure of a sentence), at the same time Frank McCourt leaves himself too vulnerable in the classroom. He seems to be afraid to let them know when they have done something wrong- afraid to be honest with them about their behavior. I know that these students are challenging, so he does have to make certain modifications and handle certain situations differently. He fears that he will, "Lose a student" if he comes down too hard on him/her. He wants to keep his students engaged, but unfortunately at any cost.

Along the way, I feel that Mr. McCourt lost sight of certain things.
A teacher needs to make it very clear what his/her role is in the classroom. He can still take his students on that same creative journey that Mr. McCourt does, while maintaining order, instilling discipline (tough love), letting them know when they have done something wrong. Once a person gets to the point where they feel they have to compromise who they are and their ethics to please another person, that is when that person loses respect and loses a part of who he/she is. I really do feel for him with the hardships that he faced in the classroom, but I also feel that he was too busy worrying about what his students thought of him, rather than maintaining a strong moral compass for his students to follow. Maybe I am just too naïve to know how truly bad it gets in some of these New York schools, but one thing is for certain- One's moral compass should never be compromised.

Mr. McCourt's teaching style, while different and creative, was sometimes too disorganized and scattered. He often let his students take him off topic from his set lessons. This is fine from time to time (all teachers have to sometimes to take creative detours to get their point across), but there were too many moments when he let his students take advantage of the situation. He needed to be more firm and disciplined with them. His classess were often not planned, unstructured, and disorganized. His students tried to capitalize on this as much as they could in order to get out of work.

Favorite part: The moments in which he made a breakthrough with his students. He felt so elated that he would start singing Irish songs. The "excuse note" idea really did get their attention and had them all writing up a storm, although I do feel he should have used a different creative writing idea to get their attention. Encouraging excuse notes is promoting lying and again compromises ethical teaching. I loved how excited he would get when his students learned something new and when he would share his Irish history with them and take them on that special journey of his past. He did possess a certain Irish charm while story telling that would grab the attention of his students and engage them in classroom conversations about his Irish history.

Least Favorite parts: It made me feel ill reading about his trip to the movies with the 29 female students. That was ridiculous how that was handled. Who was running the show there?- Him or Serena??? It was completely absurd that he wished he was brave enough to defend his students when they were goofing around at the subway. Defend them???? He should have put them in their place and told them that there will be "No Movie" if they can't behave properly. The lines of student and teacher were really blurred there.

After surviving a miserable childhood in Ireland and making his way to New York City as a young man, Frank McCourt shares anecdotes about his next 30 years -- teaching high school and community college English classes.

McCourt's somewhat unconventional teaching style, he readily admits, didn't reach everyone or even succeed as often as he would have liked. Yet many of his classes, filled with students from poverty-stricken and hopeless homes, found real enthusiasm and understanding through such lessons as writing excuse notes for their own teachers, for setting recipes to music, and setting up impromptu ethnic feasts in the park.

As no section of any person's life can possibly be extricated from all others, readers will find some familiar tidbits first mentioned in AA and 'Tis. This is, in my opinion, just light enough to establish familiarity with previous material; it is certainly not a recycling of the first two books.

As always, McCourt is honest and humorous, giving readers a glimpse into the world that was and is uniquely his.

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you know there is a GREAT event coming up almost a week away in New York City. The American Place Theatre's Festival: Literature to Life is performing a theatrical adaptation of TEACHER MAN by Frank McCourt on September 21st, 2008. Don't miss out on this wonderful opportunity to see this moving piece of literature come to life. Here's the information and can't wait to see you there!

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I don't believe there can be much more to be said about the Charms of Frank McCourt. Even when he is divulging his shortcomings, his wit and bare-knuckled honesty draw you in.

"Teacher Man" is, to me, quite different than his previous two works, but completely enjoyable down to the last tale. I think it makes a great gift to every teacher who has ever struggled with their profession and the demise of their idealistic vision. It stands out as a shining beacon that you don't have to be "perfect" to make a life changing difference in the lives of a student.