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    Teacher Man: A Memoir
    Teacher Man: A Memoir
    Teacher Man: A Memoir
    Audiobook8 hours

    Teacher Man: A Memoir

    Written by Frank McCourt

    Narrated by Frank McCourt

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Winner of the 2007 Audie Award for Biography/Memoir and Finalist for Narration by the Author

    From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, mega-bestselling author who wore his celebrity with extraordinary grace comes a magnificently appealing book about teaching and about how one great storyteller found his voice.

    Frank McCourt became an unlikely star when, at the age of sixty-six, he burst onto the literary scene with Angela's Ashes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir of his childhood in Limerick, Ireland. Then came 'Tis, his glorious account of his early years in New York.

    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 compelling honesty, McCourt records the trials, triumphs and surprises he faced in the classroom. Teacher Man shows McCourt developing his unparalleled ability to tell a great story as, five days a week, five periods per day, he worked to gain the attention and respect of unruly, hormonally charged or indifferent adolescents.

    For McCourt, storytelling itself is the source of salvation, and in Teacher Man the journey to redemption -- and literary fame -- is an exhilarating adventure.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateNov 15, 2005
    ISBN9780743552462
    Author

    Frank McCourt

    Frank McCourt’s first book, ‘Angela’s Ashes’ won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; it has sold 1.3 million copies in its Flamingo editions alone and tens of millions world-wide. For many years a writing teacher at Stuyvesant High School, McCourt performed with his brother Malachy in a musical review about their Irish youth. He lives in New York.

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    Reviews for Teacher Man

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    • 5/5
      This is the second work of Frank McCourt?s I?ve read (the other being Angela?s Ashes, which I read and reviewed in September of last year). And since he chooses to call both of them ?memoirs,? I can only conclude that the man knows what he?s talking about and is a master of the form.


      McCourt is about as real a writer as I can imagine. His language is straightforward ? never hackneyed, never trite ? and every situation he describes seems to lift right off the page and into a reader?s eyes, ears, nose and gut.


      If I think this particular memoir should be recommended reading for every teacher in the New York Public Educational system, I?m even more convinced that it should be required reading for every administrator in that same system. (I?m of course assuming that those teachers and administrators can be both honest and introspective enough to read the book with an open and receptive mind.)


      I?ve substitute-taught, myself, in the New York Independent School system here in Brooklyn, in Manhattan, in the Bronx and in Queens ? and my application to teach in the public school system was twice rejected. The chief distinction in qualifying for the former and even being considered for the latter is now ? if it wasn?t already ? crystal clear to me after having read McCourt?s own experience of both. (Although Stuyvesant High School is not, properly speaking, part of the Independent School system, the guiding philosophy of that particular school ? as we have it from McCourt, and as I know it from some of its graduates ? is very much in line with that of NYC?s Independent schools.) The Independents look for passion and creativity in their respective staffs; the Publics look for obedience, strict adherence to rules, and a Master?s Degree in Education.


      Please allow me a second anecdote. This one concerns a school I attended in South Florida when I was a kid?.


      I?d just graduated from Bayview (public) Elementary School in a section of Fort Lauderdale known as ?Coral Ridge,? and I was now headed off to middle ? or as we called it those days ? junior high school.


      I ended up, quite felicitously, going to what was then billed as an ?experimental? school called ?Nova? just west of Fort Lauderdale in a little town called ?Davie? and right down the road from some obsolete gravel pits. It was one of a kind in the entire U. S. At the time I entered the 7th Grade, the school had only 7th ? 10th, the plan being to add 11th and 12th over the next two years, then to start building back to kindergarten and eventually to build out to a university. In other words, kindergarten through graduate school, all on one campus.


      What made the school ?experimental? other than what I?ve just described as its future plans? Apart from state-of-the-art science labs and foreign language instruction in several languages, both ancient and modern, starting already at the 7th Grade level, no bells or buzzers to mark the start and end of class periods; carpeted hallways; college-like lecture halls for some of the Intro to XXX classes. And the most innovative and exciting thing of all? Every student could advance at his or her own pace in a given discipline. You could ? as a motivated eleven- or twelve-year-old ? find yourself sharing classroom space with high school seniors.


      In fact, many students went on to college at the age of fourteen or fifteen.


      It was the happiest and most fulfilling year of my long academic career ? and, I?d like to think, at least the germ of a start to my writing career.


      My parents, for various reasons, pulled me out after one year and put me back into the public school system. Within short order, the annoying habit I?d developed at Nova of reading (rather than gabbing) while waiting in line in the lunchroom rendered me something of an apostate, but I wasn?t in school to win a popularity contest. Also within relatively short order, a science teacher put an end to my incessant questions by reminding me publicly ?You?re not at Nova any longer. Rusty.?


      (It wasn?t until I eventually moved to Brooklyn that I better understood the meaning of a name ? which I still remember quite well ? namely, his: ?Mr. Schmuck.?)


      But back to Frank McCourt?s memoir, Teacher Man. Two descriptive words occur to me immediately: ?vivid? and ?compelling.? If you have any thoughts about the state of the present educational system(s) in America ? or have children of your own who may already be in one of them or are about to enter ? I can?t give this memoir a high enough recommendation.


      But I should let McCourt, himself, have the last word ? just as he did with his students on the last day of their secondary education, and on the last day of his teaching career.


      ?This is where teacher turns serious and asks Big Question: What is education, anyway? What are we doing in this school? ? I?ve worked out an equation for myself. On the left side of the blackboard I print a capital F, on the right side another capital F. I draw an arrow from left to right, from FEAR to FREEDOM.


      ?I don?t think anyone achieves complete freedom, but what I am trying to do with you is drive fear into a corner? (p. 253).


      RRB
      06/30/14
      Brooklyn, NY

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Reflections of a life well lived. Mr. McCourt has been instrumental to my enjoyment of reading.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      McCourt's voice is lyrical and convincing. He has a respect for his profession and his students, and some anecdotal moments that will make any teacher smile and nod in an "I've been there" kind of way. However, it seemed to me that he experienced very little progression as a teacher. He started out blundering, as all of us do, but he shared no triumphs, no insights, no growth, no faith that, in the end, he learned how to make it work, which saddened me. I suppose I was looking for inspiration, but only got comradery.
    • 2/5
      I don't like this story so much because the writer always complains in this book.He was poor when he was child but he was a good teacher for students. I want him to teach me one time.
    • 5/5
      If you are preparing to be, are or have been a middle or high school teacher, you should read this. Every thought Frank McCourt had in the classroom belonged to me at one time or another in the classroom during 11 years. His self deprecating humor as well as his insecurity about how he is viewed by administrators, students and parents provided assurance that this is not uncommon among teachers. His view that a teacher must to his own self be true is oh so valid. Wanting to be like the teacher in the next room who has everyone sitting up straight, teaching a black and white lesson, spoon-feeding the thoughts you want regurgitated on a test was never McCourt's style and never mine. I can really identify with Frank McCourt and am ever so glad I read his book.
    • 4/5
      More of Frank McCourt's wonderful work. He has a real knack of being able to make very complex prose sound and feel very simple to the reader. His ability to tell stories that stick in one's mind is surpassed by none I feel. Some great belly laughs, some food for thought and some poignant moments.
    • 3/5
      It was ok. I don't care for stream of conciousness type of writing that much.
    • 3/5
      A nice follow up to his previous books. He obviously enjoyed his work, and had a positive effect on his students.
    • 4/5
      This book was a good read. It was light with equal parts humor and stark reality. It is an inspiring read for immigrants and/or teachers. The writing style keeps you attention, and the little classroom anecdotes offer wonderful glimpses into the life of the author and his students.
    • 5/5
      Hysterical account of his inimitable teaching style. If only more teachers were this daring in showing how much they love their subject. Students respond to passion, no matter how wacky.
    • 4/5
      I recommend the audio, as it is read by McCourt himself, and he?s a wonderful reader, hah hah (you?ll have to listen to get that). Those who have read [book:Angela?s Ashes] ? a marvelous memoir of Frank?s early childhood in Ireland? will remember him growing up in abject poverty, worn to the breaking point by hunger and a father?best intentions notwithstanding? who drank away whatever little money he was able to earn. Alcohol is a desperate problem for the Irish in McCourt?s books. It seems no one could do anything or go anywhere without a few pints. The local tavern?of which there must have been thousands ?apparently substituted for home life. Still, both books have an undercurrent of humor that?s very enjoyable. ?Tis takes up where Angela?s Ashes ends. Frank is 19, fresh off the boat in New York ? he?s an American citizen, having been born in New York ?and he has bought the American Dream, a land of riches where everyone has enough to eat and can become president. But the 1930s finds New York as inhospitable to the poor as Limerick. Ironically, his ship lands at Albany and he has to find his way to New York in the company of a friendly?too friendly as we later learn?priest. A recurrent theme, never quite explained, is Frank?s problem with his eyes: ?like two piss-holes in the snow.? Never completely cured, his problem is repeatedly misdiagnosed, and, perceived by some employers to be contagious, he is banned from public contact in his first menial job (of many) cleaning up after rich patrons at the Biltmore Hotel. There?s a very funny scene in which he is ordered by the manager to dig through the garbage to find a paper napkin on which some ingenue had inscribed the telephone number of some Princeton beau. Thinking it was trash, Frank had taken it out with the garbage. Incensed, he spills some coffee on a clean napkin, writes some made-up phone number on the ersatz napkin, and presents it to the teary girl as the authentic one. It?s a wonderfully satisfying scene. Some reviewers, including my wife, have found this book to be much gloomier and not as sympathetic as Angela?s Ashes. I found it otherwise. It?s true that many of his assumptions and illusions about America were destroyed, but it?s a great story about the value and power of teaching and education. Libraries were his salvation. It was because he was a reader and loved books that he was able to get into college without a high school diploma. But there is an undercurrent of jealousy and envy that pervades his relationships with others. He resents the privileges of the rich, and complains about the sons and daughters of the rich who can send their children to Stuyvesant High School, where he later taught, so they could make money and grow ?into their fat 40?s.? He wants to be middleclass, but he complains he doesn?t know how to dress or act, and he turns his wedding day into an alcohol-fueled debacle. There?s also a view of the Irish as a very clannish bunch who were constantly urging each other to stick together. They helped each other out, using the political power they had accumulated to create jobs for themselves to the exclusion of anyone else, but particularly blacks, something Frank abhorred. McCourt?s mother makes it over to the United States, but she?s not a happy woman, constantly complaining about tea-bags from which one certainly cannot make a decent cup of tea, and whining about not having any friends. McCourt has a wonderful storytellers gift, and I found the vignettes of his friends, most of them rather sorry individuals, quite amusing. There is Andy Peters, who changes a few unapproved loan applications every night to approved in order to help out some of the less fortunate, and Harry Ball, an 85-year-old neighbor who spends most of his time in a chair near his car trying to scout out better parking places.

    • 4/5
      A must read for all those who teach or think they want too.
    • 5/5
      And the Frank McCourt marathon continues. This is the sequel to 'Tis, the sequel to Angela's Ashes. And like the other two books, I couldn't put it down.
    • 4/5
      A memoir that includes stories of students and classrooms, stories of teacher peers, stories of building (surviving) a career in education. The approach is focused on the challenges and self-doubt faced throughout. He documents not only his own experience as a teacher, but also the struggles of his students making their own way in society/American culture through the decades of his career.
    • 5/5
      Another beautiful memoir by Frank McCourt. He’s so real and so wise and so lyrical. I also loved Angela’s Ashes and ‘Tis. His narration is so touching. I wish he could have written more, but we’re fortunate he left us three wonderful books.
    • 3/5
      Well, I suppose part of my problem with this book was that I had extremely high expectations. I'd been told by various friends to read it, and there's a quote on the dust jacket from Billy Collins saying that all teachers and politians should read it. Beyond that, there's a note on the inside of the dustjacket that mentions some of McCourt's classroom activities as an example of the unique creative classroom exercises he engages in. Let's discuss those first. First, this is like one of those movies where they put all the funniest parts in the preview--there may be one or two exercises mentioned in the book that the dustjacket doesn't mention...but I'm not even sure there are that many. Next problem: with at least some of those so-called exercises, he writes that he didn't really know where he was going with them. Either they were spur of the moment decisions, or things that suddenly seemed like interesting ideas, though he didn't know where they'd lead the class. First of all, as a student, I would have been horrified by this. I don't mind not being entirely clear on why I'm doing something in a class, but I certainly expect the teacher to have a masterplan and goal. McCourt presents some of his most interesting exercises as a combination of busywork or lucky chances that ended up leading somewhere...though he didn't originally realize he would. As a teacher, I just don't find this acceptable. There are times when I'm not sure whether an assignment will work--that comes with being creative--but I always believe it will be beneficial to the students, and I could easily articulate why at any time. This leads into what is probably more of an issue for me personally. I hoped to learn something from this book; at the least, I expected to be impressed by another teacher. Instead, I was disappointed. McCourt's overly cynical attitude (from the beginning of his career) would be the last way I'd want an "exemplary" teacher to be portrayed. I have a great deal of respect for my own profession and for the teachers I know, and I'll tell you--most of us became teachers because we wanted to, not because we didn't know what else to do with ourselves. It may be hard work, but we Enjoy it. This might be an amusing book for teachers to read, and may well be familiar at times, but it is far from inspiring or a picture of someone I'd look to as a mentor. As for politicians, it certainly could do some good for them to see in the classroom. But for my part, I don't think things will change if they get the idea that all teachers are like McCourt.In any case, I'm sure that this is a wonderful book...if you're the right audience. For me, it took a long time to get through even though it is extremely readable and at moments engaging. It is a quick read--I just got so frustrated with McCourt and his character at times, that I simply had to put the book down and find reading elsewhere.
    • 4/5
      This was a great memoir on the way "things used to be" in the education world. As a former resident of New York, I have plenty of friends who are teachers in the New York City public school system. While the demographics and logistics have changed, it seems that the core problems faced in McCourt's teaching days are still alive and kicking. I would highly recommend this book, but not as summer reading for a teacher!
    • 4/5
      he was a great teacher. I wanna be taught by interesting teacher like him.
    • 3/5
      I was surprised by the number of reviewers who did not like this book. I enjoyed it. Audiobook is definitely the way to go, even though the author sounds like he has marbles in his mouth, because he is a natural storyteller, and his imitations of students are priceless. I would have been one of those students frustrated by McCourt's teaching methods. I wanted to be able to measure what I had learned on a test. He wanted students to explore their creativity. Students have taken many, many classes by the time they graduate high school, so there should be room for a few random classes where success isn't measured on a test. I don't think I would have felt confident enough to open up in his class -- he really doesn't address the issues of loners vs. popular kids -- I probably would have been on the outside looking in on the fun everyone else was having. But, who knows -- maybe he would have taught me to laugh at myself, not take myself too seriously, like he tried to do.
    • 5/5
      Frank McCourt writes about his experiences as a teacher in the New York Public School System. Through his experiences in several public high schools, we watch him slowly gain insight into what teaching really means and how his students have shaped the man he's become. McCourt is a brilliant memoirist: funny, authentic, honest.
    • 2/5
      McCourt is known and loved, apparently, for Angela?s Ashes, a memoir about his Irish mother. After reading Teacher Man, I have to conclude that the well has run dry on the memoir front for this writer. McCourt has an affable, lyrical voice and is very honest, even when it reveals him warts and all. Yet there is just not much of a story here. I picked it up thinking that I was going to read an inspiring story of an Irish immigrant teaching inner-city kids in New York City about the power of books and writing. Although there are occasional glimmers along these lines, instead you?re left feeling that you?ve read the autobiography of a mediocre schoolteacher who basically advanced from being useless to marginally adequate. How underwhelming! I can?t imagine that this book would have been published if it weren?t written by someone who already had a best-seller under his belt.
    • 5/5
      This man is so real and wonderful. He knows how to evoke feelings in a story that sounds perfectly mundane, but is actually fantastically interesting. He doesn't hide anything and I love every one of his books.
    • 4/5
      Really liked this esp. the way he couldn't get down to do the phd in Trinity and kept putting it off but did have index cards. Good insight into teaching.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed McCourt's "Teacher Man." I had an unusual thought reading "Teacher Man" considering recent books we have read, I wish this one was longer! More stories! More anecdotes! This book tells of both humorous and touching stories from his 30 years of teaching in New York City schools. Recipes read to music, field trips to the theater, writing excuse notes to God, and those lovely parent conferences. I appreciated the fact that he apparently threw out any direction, instruction, or rules learned from or given by his administrators and colleagues and just learned to be himself in the classroom. Amazingly he was not fired early in his career for some now humorous discretion! From another review, "McCourt throws down the gauntlet on education, asserting that teaching is more than achieving high test scores. It's about educating, about forming intellects, about getting people to think." And from his own book, "I was uncomfortable with the bureaucrats, the higher-ups, who had escaped classrooms only to turn and bother the occupants of those classrooms, teachers and students. I never wanted to fill out their forms, follow their guidelines, administer their examinations, tolerate their snooping, adjust myself to their programs and courses of study." Sadly, I get the notion that this process took him half of his teaching career. I enjoyed the way he connected with some challenging and difficult students. He seems like the kind of teacher we all would have wanted at one point in our education, however, having all teachers like him would be difficult as well. It is clear that we need teachers of all talents, interests, and passions. Many times McCourt's lessons reminded me of Mark Twain's quote, "Never let schooling interfere with your education!" The book jacket quote indicates this is a book to be read by teachers and politicians . . . add school administrators and Board of Regent's members to that list. McCourt might agree with the quote from critics of the No Child Left Behind legislation requiring more testing. "The drill and kill curriculum that accompanies high-stakes, one-size-fits-all testing programs undermines rather than improves the quality of education," explained Dr. Neill. "Once again, independent data demonstrate that the nation cannot test its way to educational quality. It's time to abandon the failed test-and-punish quick fix and get on with the hard work of identifying the real causes of student learning problems, then addressing them effectively. Congress should follow the lead of the more than 60 national education, civil rights and religious organizations that have come together to call for an overhaul of this damaging federal law." Some things students learn in school just cannot be objectively tested. I think the book will leave most readers wanting more stories from his years at Stuyvesant High School. Perhaps McCourt's next book?
    • 2/5
      I didn't enjoy this book! The man seemed so self-effacing and incapable of doing anything right - it was only a matter of time before his marriage failed. He seemed to lack any spunk and I kept hoping that he would find some courage before the end of his tale, but alas! It was not to be. His story holds more appeal for the feminine reader....
    • 2/5
      It was a little difficult for me. I confused.
    • 4/5
      McCourt is an interesting man, but I think that even though he laid so much of his life bare in Angela's Ashes, he's decided to pull back a bit and this book suffers because of it. This slim book covers his entire professional career, along with a divorce and remarriage that are barely mentioned. There's just too much distance and jumping around to really engage the reader, though there are parts that have that signature McCourt humor and charm.
    • 4/5
      I love McCourt's stories. Teacher man is not as good as 'Tis, which I loved (but I lost the book in an airport in Spain), or Angela's Ashes. Nonetheless, a fun and interesting read. He makes me smile. That may seem simple...but it takes ALOT to make me smile.
    • 3/5
      I found Teacher Man a very interesting read; as a teacher, the book certainly told it like it was, and still is, for teaching in the trenches of high school, and the impact teachers hope and sometimes can make upon their students. On the downside, the book can be a little ranty and long-winded--and especially over the top with the self-effacing attitude. McCourt devotes a little too much to his own education and adolescent troubles in Ireland. Also, I didn't find his dating and/or marital troubles to be particularly relevant--interesting: yes; relevant:no.All in all, I'm glad I read it.
    • 4/5
      I was delighted to find this book at Borders, mainly coz I?ve read his other two, Angela?s Ashes and Tis. McCourt is the kind of author who test your patience. He?s not the kind who throws too many things at you in the first three chapters, almost challenging you to put it down if you didn?t have enough faith in him. But should you persevere, you will be duly rewarded, for McCourt is a late bloomer, as he would tell his readers repeatedly. You?d think that there?s no hope for him as he laments his string of misfortunes, one of it having to be born Irish, but rising above and beyond all stereotype and eventually making his mark as an accomplished author.McCourt doesn?t write fiction, at least I have come to conclude. He writes his memoirs, his childhood growing up in Limerick though he was born in New York. Returning to America, he was cast as an outsider, a bitter irony that he resented deeply though that did not stop him. He finally became an English teacher, teaching high school kids about a language that they have taken for granted. If that wasn?t hard enough he had teenage angst, rebellion and lack of ambition to contend with. But McCourt pulled through and there were many moments in this book that reaffirmed his career choice, for like his students, he knows what it feels like to be a misfit, never quite blending into the background and finding that everything is one big struggle.I took this book with me when I went away for work. Since I had many moments to myself, I found myself easily drawn into McCourt?s world. I saw him working at the docks to pay through his college education. I felt like I was in his class when he was trying to describe sentence structure aided by a ballpoint pen. I wished I was there when his students read recipes from cookbooks to the tune of various musical instruments, thus a reading of Eggs Benedict was elevated into an opus of some kind.Read this if you?re a McCourt fan, or if you?re a teacher wanting a shot of inspiration. Or simply if like McCourt, you?re a tough mick trying to make it through but finding it hard and the whole world is against you. McCourt doesn?t use big words, or vague analogies to drive his message. Instead they?re everyday scenes, proving that greatness is achieved not through ingenuity or that rare streak of talent, but through sheer perseverance and finding inspiration in ourselves and within each other.