Teacher Man: A Memoir

Additional Teacher Man: A Memoir Information

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.

What Customers Say About Teacher Man: A Memoir:

And that, has made all the difference."Teacher Man" is a book that will surely resonate with anyone,who,like "moi", has ever experienced life as a high school teacher. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better than "Angela's Ashes", along came "'Tis". But what of those who have never embraced the profession. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better than "'Tis", along came "Teacher Man".In "Teacher Man", McCourt is no longer haunted by the images of his dismal childhood in Limerick. His vision is no longer obscured by all those "dark clouds" that were ever a part of his being in the other memoirs as he endeavored to find his niche.In "Teacher Man" he is totally immersed in the sometimes chaotic, sometimes enchanting, sometimes frustrating but always challenging world of a classroom filled with that most curious of creatures: the adolescent.In that world, he not only finds his voice, he finds his heart, he finds his soul,he finds his passion. To that I would respond that "Teacher Man" will also resonate with anyone who has ever been a high school student. And weren't we all.

I liked his other books much more. I thought this book would be stories about teaching and his individual students' struggles to learn, his relationships with them, etc. Instead, it seemed to be just a platform to tell more stories of his life, in that he would tell his life stories to his students, because the students wanted to hear stories rather than the subject he was teaching. It wasn't really what I was expecting and I believe he used most of his best stories of his childhood and youth in the first two books.

I have read Angela's Ashes and just finished the Teacher Man. He made me laugh and made me cry. Love his style of writing.

I thoughly enjoyed reading this book, and would probably send for more books of this kind in the future. DC

I loved Angel's Ashes. He started to, and had a few poignant moments but it wasn't till the very when he seemed to begin to connect with this students and that's really what teaching is all about, isn't it. I thought Tis was pretty good, too but Teacher Man did not move me. I kept waiting the whole book for him to figure it out. It never grabbed me.