Teacher Man

The job of a teacher is always an interesting one. Each day can be very different. The personality of the teacher, the vast schooling options, the attitudes of the students, administration and parent support are just a few of the variables that make teaching such an interesting profession.

It is clear in Frank McCourt's new book, TEACHER MAN, that his 30-year tenure as a teacher was one of interest. McCourt chronicles the positives and failures of his teaching career. He tells funny stories and he is honest about how it really was for him in the classroom. McCourt found a way to make his mark, to try to be different.

McCourt ends his book with the following advice:
Find what you love and do it. That's what it boils down to. I admit I didn't always love teaching. I was out of my depth. You're on your own in the classroom... They may like you, they may even love you, but they are young and it is the job of the young to push the old off the planet... It's hard but you have to make yourself comfortable in the classroom. You have to be selfish. The airlines tell you if oxygen fails you are to put on your mask first, even if your instinct is to save the child.
The classroom is a place of high drama. You'll never know what you've done to, or for, the hundreds coming and going. You see them leaving the classroom: dreamy, flat, sneering, admiring, smiling, puzzled. After a few years you develop antennae. You can tell when you have reached them or alienated them. It's chemistry. It's psychology. It's animal instinct. You are with the kids and, as long as you want to be a teacher, there's no escape. Don't expect help from the people who've escaped the classroom, the higher-ups. They're busy going to lunch and thinking higher thoughts. It's you and the kids. So, there's the bell. See you later. Find what you love and do it.


Thanks to those that find what you love in a classroom. Thank you for being a teacher.