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Teacher Man: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Frank Mccourt
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $14.99 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  234 reviews
Sales Rank: 38219
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 258
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5
ISBN: 0743243781
Dewey Decimal Number: 371.10092
EAN: 9780743243780
ASIN: 0743243781
Publication Date: September 19, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
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Amazon.com Review
For 30 years Frank McCourt taught high school English in New York City and for much of that time he considered himself a fraud. During these years he danced a delicate jig between engaging the students, satisfying often bewildered administrators and parents, and actually enjoying his job. He tried to present a consistent image of composure and self-confidence, yet he regularly felt insecure, inadequate, and unfocused. After much trial and error, he eventually discovered what was in front of him (or rather, behind him) all along--his own experience. "My life saved my life," he writes. "My students didn't know there was a man up there escaping a cocoon of Irish history and Catholicism, leaving bits of that cocoon everywhere." At the beginning of his career it had never occurred to him that his own dismal upbringing in the slums of Limerick could be turned into a valuable lesson plan. Indeed, his formal training emphasized the opposite. Principals and department heads lectured him to never share anything personal. He was instructed to arouse fear and awe, to be stern, to be impossible to please--but he couldn't do it. McCourt was too likable, too interested in the students' lives, and too willing to reveal himself for their benefit as well as his own. He was a kindred spirit with more questions than answers: "Look at me: wandering late bloomer, floundering old fart, discovering in my forties what my students knew in their teens." As he did so adroitly in his previous memoirs, Angela's Ashes and 'Tis, McCourt manages to uncover humor in nearly everything. He writes about hilarious misfires, as when he suggested (during his teacher's exam) that the students write a suicide note, as well as unorthodox assignments that turned into epiphanies for both teacher and students. A dazzling writer with a unique and compelling voice, McCourt describes the dignity and difficulties of a largely thankless profession with incisive, self-deprecating wit and uncommon perception. It may have taken him three decades to figure out how to be an effective teacher, but he ultimately saved his most valuable lesson for himself: how to be his own man. --Shawn Carkonen
Product Description
Here at last in paperback is Frank McCourt's critically acclaimed and bestselling 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 of teaching in public high schools. 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.For McCourt, storytelling itself is the source of salvation, and in Teacher Man the journey to redemption--and literary fame--is an exhilarating adventure.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 229 more reviews...
A different sort of story from AA and 'Tis, yet equally enjoyable... September 23, 2008
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.
 Come and check out this FANTASTIC EVENT for TEACHER MAN September 12, 2008
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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Third times the Charm... August 27, 2008
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.
Teacher Man: A Reality Check August 13, 2008
A fellow teacher and friend recommended this book to me; I had never heard of it previously, surprisingly. I knew I would like it just by looking at the cover and first few pages: Frank McCourt's sense of humor and finesse with teaching really shows through with two photographs there especially. He takes the reader easily through the span of his teaching career with a string of hilarious anecdotes and shares invaluable, yet typical, insight along the way. McCourt really refreshed my sense of what teaching was, is , and can be along with putting teaching situations and education in perspective. As a teacher of high school Language Arts, I often wonder whether or not it's me, the kids, or both. Whether he intends to or not, McCourt reassures educators like me that educating youth is an ongoing, if not sometimes stifling, doubting, and frustrating struggle. Kids have always been kids, so to speak, and the best teachers have always been just that too. A true reality check for public school systems in a time of No Child Left Behind. It does a stunning and long-lasting job of reminding us that making kids think is what we yearn for and that, sometimes, we realize that yearning, in spite of ourselves. Thanks Mr. McCourt for revitalizing a part of me that had been a bit bogged down!
 Puzzling July 26, 2008
I am puzzled by this book. The first paragraph stated McCourt's pride over having made something of himself after a terrible childhood. He then proceeds to tell the story of his teaching as part of this. He admits himself that he felt like a fraud much of the time. I can see why! Most of the anecdotes cover stories of his childhood and he admits to not having control over the students. (He seems to waver between intense pride and self loathing.) Although I enjoyed many of his anecdotes(the assignments to write a suicide note, a excuse note to God from Eve, and reading recipes to music), I spent a lot of time wondering how he could have been a wonderful teacher and had kids flocking to the classroom. I must assume that there is something key to McCourt's charming classroom manner that he left out.
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