Teacher Man by Frank McCourt 4/5

 

For this month's book review, I will be sharing a book I had to read for a class at uni. last semester. The book Teacher Man by Frank McCourt, is a memoir about McCourt's journey through his many years of teaching. Majoring in elementary and middle school education, this book was interesting for me even though McCourt taught high school and college. We can all learn something from the experiences of other teachers!   

Overall, I enjoyed reading McCourt's book on his experiences in teaching. I like how he got creative with his students in his lessons, like his grammar lesson in "disguise," his lesson using excuse notes, teaching with food, and creative writing with reviews. McCourt also includes his encounters with parents of students and problems students went through like racism and conflicts with students meeting parent's expectations. One chapter in particular was ironic to me because I went through similar situations in one of my English classes my first year at uni. My professor had a lesson on fairy tales like McCourt and she also taught the same poem, "My Papa's Waltz." Throughout the book, McCourt included stories from his personal life, like memories of his childhood he would tell his students, him as a husband and father, and his work other than teaching. There was also some humor put into Teacher Man that I thought was funny.

There are some parts of the book that I thought was interesting and worth sharing here. In his prologue, McCourt describes what others felt was the status of teachers at the time. Unfortunately, it wasn't good. He writes, "In America, doctors, lawyers, generals, actors, television people and politicians are admired and rewarded. Not teachers." But even with this negative view of the teaching profession, McCourt did have a number of students telling him they wanted to teach in the future too, which I'm sure is nice for teachers to hear.

There were many other parts in his book that I marked because I liked them, but a few that I didn't like. For example, there were two  parts were McCourt got physical with his students and hit them, which I don't think a teacher should ever do. Also, a few personal stories on his private "romantic" life didn't have to be included in my opinion. Nonetheless, I did like this book for the most part and gave it a 4/5 stars. If you do plan to teach in the future or currently teach, I would recommend this book to you, but also if you are curious to know a little bit about the teaching profession. After all, as a quote says, "Teaching is the profession that teaches all the other professions."

If you would like to purchase a copy of Teacher Man by Frank McCourt, then check out Teacher Man: A Memoir by Frank McCourt