Teacher Man

“In ’Tis I wrote about my life in America and how I became a teacher. After it was published I had the nagging feeling I’d given teaching short shrift. In America, doctors, lawyers, generals, actors, television people and politicians are admired and rewarded. Not teachers. Teaching is the downstairs maid of professions. Teachers are told to use the service door or go around the back. They are congratulated on having ATTO (All That Time Off). They are spoken of patronizingly and patted, retroactively, on their silvery locks. Oh, yes, I had an English teacher, Miss Smith, who really inspired me. I’ll never forget dear old Miss Smith. She used to say that if she reached one child in her forty years of teaching it would make it all worthwhile. She’d die happy. The inspiring English teacher then fades into gray shadows to eke out her days on a penny-pinching pension, dreaming of the one child she might have reached. Dream on, teacher. You will not be celebrated.”

This passage from the Prologue explains the origins of this book. He wanted to give teaching its proper due because it’s not highly regarded among the professions in the United States. Empty and condescending praise is occasionally paid to teachers, but not much else. McCourt’s characteristic humor and sarcasm come through here at the start, introducing the reader to his writing style as well.

“Here they come.

And I’m not ready.

How could I be?

I’m a new teacher and learning on the job.

On the first day of my teaching career, I was almost fired for eating the sandwich of a high school boy. On the second day I was almost fired for mentioning the possibility of friendship with a sheep. Otherwise, there was nothing remarkable about my thirty years in the high school classrooms of New York City. I often doubted if I should be there at all. At the end I wondered how I lasted that long.”

Fittingly for a memoir about teaching, McCourt begins with his first day on the job. The style is light and engaging, opening with the intriguing anecdote that he was almost fired, not once, but twice in his first two days. It also introduces what will be one of the book’s main themes: learning by experience. He admits to learning on the job, a process that took many years.

“Professors of education at New York University never lectured on how to handle flying-sandwich situations. They talked about theories and philosophies of education, about moral and ethical imperatives, about the necessity of dealing with the whole child, the gestalt, if you don’t mind, the child’s felt needs, but never about critical moments in the classroom.”

This is a message that McCourt repeats a number of times: He was on his own. His teacher education meant little in the real world, as he didn’t learn how to deal with classroom management, conferences with parents, and many other things. This contributes to the book’s theme of