Name: Teacher Man
ISBN: 9780743243780

Frank McCourt

A Memoir

Teacher Man

Lara Engle

As an English teacher in training and someone who has worked in high schools, the thing I found most striking was that McCourt's descriptions of teenagers in the 1960s were recognizable as students in today's classrooms. Teenagers are teenagers, no matter their time. As always, his anecdotes were engaging, but this book gave me little to point to and say, "Ah, so that's why he was an award-winning teacher." Having read his other memoirs, I felt like this was written as a way to cap his story, not because McCourt felt compelled to tell this particular tale.

Tracie McMurray

I started reading this book 15 minutes at a time while my 9th grade English students practiced reading for pleasure during our “Reading Matters” assignment. And it was the last I read on December 31st in 2019. 

It was an absolute joy to read McCourt describe our profession. I kept sticky notes close by and read many passages to my classes. This Pulitzer Prize-winning author said it best, “Find what you love and do it.” I wish I could have been in his class. The stories in this memoir will stay with me for years to come while I do what I love to do in my high school classroom.

Jaymie Lemke

This was a compilation of the same stories that he already wrote about in 'Tis. I give it a "yawn" and a "meh".

Robin M Cabana

Frank McCourt is such a great story teller. My sister, who is a teacher, lent this book to me. I have a greater appreciation for what teachers put up with and wish I had McCourt as a teacher, too. The stories of his years in the classroom are funny, touching and sometimes absurd - like reading recipes along to music. It sounds like his students might not have learned much in the traditional sense in his classes, but they had a lot of fun. But aren't those the teachers - the ones who teach us life leasons - that we remember best.

Over a decade ago Frank McCourt became an unlikely star when, at the age of 66, 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. McCourt's classic audiobook 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 he faces in public high schools around New York City. "Teacher Man" shows McCourt developing his unparalleled ability to tell a great story as he works to gain the attention and respect of unruly, hormonally-charged or indifferent adolescents. McCourt's rocky marriage, his failed attempt to get a Ph.D. at Trinity College, Dublin, and his repeated firings due to his propensity to talk back to his superiors ironically lead him to New York's most prestigious school, Stuyvesant High School, where he finally finds a place and a voice.

Michael Friess

Frank McCourt writes about his 30 years of teaching in New York's high schools and colleges. It is a good lesson about teaching - the big challenges, what is important and what is not. And it is a book about himself and how he finally wrote his first book as a late bloomer.

This is fun to read.

Adeline S.

Megan Snodgrass

Miguel Angel

Amy Vicknair

Evan Huang

Jeanie Cha

Corey White

Kelley Nielsen-Radtke

Lisa Miller

Nearly a decade ago 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 heartbreaking honesty, McCourt records the trials, triumphs and surprises he faces in public high schools around New York City. His methods anything but conventional, McCourt creates a lasting impact on his students through imaginative assignments (he instructs one class to write "An Excuse Note from Adam or Eve to God"), singalongs (featuring recipe ingredients as lyrics), and field trips (imagine taking twenty-nine rowdy girls to a movie in Times Square!). McCourt struggles to find his way in the classroom and spends his evenings drinking with writers and dreaming of one day putting his own story to paper. 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. McCourt's rocky marriage, his failed attempt to get a Ph.D. at Trinity College, Dublin, and his repeated firings due to his propensity to talk back to his superiors ironically lead him to New York's most prestigious school, Stuyvesant High School, where he finally finds a place and a voice. "Doggedness," he says, is "not as glamorous as ambition or talent or intellect or charm, but still the one thing that got me through the days and nights." For McCourt, storytelling itself is the source of salvation, and in Teacher Man the journey to redemption -- and literary fame -- is an exhilarating adventure.

Teacher Man A Memoir

Reviews