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?Teacher Man? by Frank McCourt

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Book Review by Joyce Ruiz
This is the third book by Frank McCourt.  The first, and most known being “Angela’s Ashes”, which was also made into a movie.  His second book was entitled, “Tis”.  All books are autobiographical.  I really enjoyed the first book, was not too crazy about the second book, and I’m not sure about this last book.  If you are going to read only one, then read “Angela’s Ashes”.

The most difficult part of this book was the writing style.  His style of telling a story, but from the third person, was hard for me to get into the rhythm of.   And, I’m not sure if I really liked him much as a person, either!  

The book focuses on his 30 years of teaching high school English in New York City.  There were the usual problems with principals, department heads, parents, students, etc.  His first half of teaching was to the inner-city poor who were, at best, expected to graduate and certainly not pursue higher education.  His second half of teaching was at an exclusive, best-of-the-best school.  Of course, the best stories involve teaching to the inner-city poor!

If you can get past the style of writing, there are some interesting, unorthodox teaching methods outlined in this book.  If you read this book without reading “Angela’s Ashes”, or if you know nothing about being poor and living in Ireland in the 1940’s, then you might be put off by his anti-Catholic remarks.  I was not too offended by the remarks (maybe because I’m not Catholic), but I think Catholics will recognize the stories of how life used to be in Catholic schools 50 years ago.

If you want to skim through the book, at least read the section where he devises a writing assignment to his students on the “Excuse Note” which he hilariously describes as his students’ greatest achievements.  One of the “Excuse Notes” was to be written by Adam to God.