“Teacher Man,” by Frank McCourt

“Teacher Man,” by Frank McCourt, (New York: Scribner; 2005), 258 pages.

  

In Frank McCourt’s third book, “Teacher Man,” he again writes about his favorite subject, himself; however, in this book McCourt expands upon his earlier recollections of his vocation as a teacher in the New York City public school system. This subject was covered quite nicely in the second volume of his autobiography “’Tis,” where he wrote of his experiences as a teacher as part of the journey of his life from an impoverished immigrant to an accomplished and revered high school teacher. His time as a teacher was an important component of the story of his life in that book. “Teacher Man” is different in that it puts Frank McCourt, the respected teacher, as the subject of the book, and relegates other aspects of his life into the background.

“Teacher Man,” while predominantly autobiographical, is also a commentary on the teaching profession in the public school system. McCourt notes that success is determined by the speed at which teachers abandon the classroom and seek shelter in the administrative bureaucracy. Successful teaching is admired for its own sake, but it is not rewarded like successful teacher administration. McCourt also demonstrates what teachers like him had to do to “break through” with dis-interested students. As the teacher of very ordinary students, he sometimes had to be innovative and use methods that some might think of as radical or inappropriate. For example, to get the attention of the vocational school English class, he drew upon their extensive experience of forging parental excuse notes to teach a class on writing excuse notes. With a fully attentive and engaged class, he challenged them to write an excuse note from Adam of God. Success in the classroom was not always mirrored in McCourt’s private life. He failed to fulfill his own (or his wife’s) ambitions of becoming successful: he did not become a teaching administrator, and spent two years in Ireland studying for a Ph. D without success.

This book succeeds on many levels. It is a fine memoir of the career of a teacher. It is also a critique and commentary on the successes and failures of the American public school system. It also gives us an insight into how good teachers can make a difference in the lives of students, and occasionally fail to “get through” to certain troubled students. It also goes over  McCourt’s well trodden ground of the difficulties faced by new immigrants in escaping their impoverished childhoods. For all these reasons, this is a highly commendable book. Despite such accolades, it is not without flaws. At times McCourt lapses into the habit of giving us too much detail of certain aspects of his personal life. His disclosures may offend some readers or be considered in poor taste, particular those that detail his infidelities. Nonetheless, it is honest; perhaps to a fault, but it is a very rewarding read. And now that this revered literature teacher has passed away, we can be thankful for what he has written, while speculating on what he may have written had he not passed away. One can’t help but think that there may have been another book or two in Frank McCourt on a subject other than his autobiography. Unfortunately that was not to be, and we are all the poorer for it.