Teacher Man: A Memoir

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Now, here at last, is McCourt's long-awaited book about how his thirty-year teaching career shaped his second act as a writer. Teacher Man is also an urgent tribute to teachers everywhere. In bold and spirited prose featuring his irreverent wit and heartbreaking honesty, McCourt records the trials, triumphs and surprises he faces in public high schools around New York City. His methods anything but conventional, McCourt creates a lasting impact on his students through imaginative assignments (he instructs one class to write "An Excuse Note from Adam or Eve to God"), singalongs (featuring recipe ingredients as lyrics), and field trips (imagine taking twenty-nine rowdy girls to a movie in Times Square!).

McCourt struggles to find his way in the classroom and spends his evenings drinking with writers and dreaming of one day putting his own story to paper. Teacher Man shows McCourt developing his unparalleled ability to tell a great story as, five days a week, five periods per day, he works to gain the attention and respect of unruly, hormonally charged or indifferent adolescents. McCourt's rocky marriage, his failed attempt to get a Ph.D. at Trinity College, Dublin, and his repeated firings due to his propensity to talk back to his superiors ironically lead him to New York's most prestigious school, Stuyvesant High School, where he finally finds a place and a voice. "Doggedness," he says, is "not as glamorous as ambition or talent or intellect or charm, but still the one thing that got me through the days and nights."

For McCourt, storytelling itself is the source of salvation, and in Teacher Man the journey to redemption -- and literary fame -- is an exhilarating adventure.

What Customers Say About Teacher Man: A Memoir:

I often wonder if he was too hard on himself. I hated doing the sentence thing, I would have understood better with his PEN idea.

It goes quickly. Just read the book.

I was so touched by this one. It also allowed them to hear other points of view on different topics.

I had the CD playing in my house while cleaning, in my car while commuting, it was fascinating. I listened on CD, Frank himself read the book, it would not have been the same by any other person.

The idea of his students writing excuse notes from Adam to God, or Eve to God got their creative juices going.

To some degree, they did this by 1)caring about the students and 2) convincing them the learning would pay off in some important ways. Being a teacher myself, and having enjoyed McCourt's first book, I decided to pick up Teacher Man. Some would ask simply: "Did I learn what I was supposed to learn in this class." If so, they would give the teacher a high grade. Good book.

My best teachers were ones who showed they cared about me but also knew how to teach. It takes both, and I believe McCourt tried to do both. In that sense, I think we was successful to some extent and I do applaud him for caring enough to expose his life deeply to his students. He saw a glimmer of potential that some of his life experiences could somehow help, enlighten, or motivate the students in this crazy business of life, and he fought the establishment to some degree to make teaching about the real stuff, the hard stuff of life.

This is what happened in some "classroom" movies such as Mr. So I think that McCourt's spat with the school officials was important. I suppose there are a number of definitions or opinions of what constitutes an exceptional or effective teacher. To Sir, With Love, Lean on Me, and Conroy's The Water is Wide may be a little more similar to McCourt's story in that the students learned some "non-intellectual" lessons about life as shared by the teacher directly or indirectly.

However the draw of these movies was that these teachers were able to take bored,angry, underachieving students and convince them of the value of learning. For example, a math teacher is supposed to make sure his students learn math and become proficient at it. Holland's Opus (music), Stand and Deliver (math), and Dead Poet's Society (literature).

His Teacher Man resonates with me, an English teacher in an inter-city school. Frank McCort's books are well-written and an insight into his life.

The book reads swiftly. Those that can do and those that cannot teach. I did not regret it. I imagine any teacher, English major, writer or Irishperson will love it. Read this book. I tried to read Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes some years ago, and could not slog my way through to the end.

He read a passage from the book and I was compelled to give him another try. McCourt did both, eventually. The dismal movie version did not motivate me either--and I dismissed McCourt. Imagine teaching nearly everyday for 30 years and only at the end finding the motivation to finally write something yourself after having talked about writing (and reading) forever. And so will everyone else. However upon his recent(2009) demise, I happened upon a television tribute to him including his being interviewed about "Teacher Man".

Have you even wondered what your English teacher was really thinking about his students and his hapless job.

he was a great author. i love it. i haven't finished the book yet, i can't put it down.