My Reaction & Comments

I'm normally not a big reader unless it is something that catches my eye so to pick up this book and begin reading was a task that took some time. However, once I began reading I found it to be an easy and enjoyable read. I think it is very helpful in many different ways to read about the teaching stories of fellow teachers. As I stated in the other blog it brings mixed emotions of comfort, excitement, and fear all at the same time. In this book I think Frank McCourt and I could have a pretty good relationship. From what I am taking from the book he was a very self-conscious yet sarcastic person. He ALWAYS does exactly what his qoute states, "I was sick of my miserable childhood, too, the way it followed me across the Atlantic and kept nagging at me to be made public." pg. 171 He used his sarcasm to get him in and out of weird situations and then relfected on these questionable moments. As you read you find out the way he is changing whether it is on a personal level but mainly through the way he handles his classrooms. It was not until he got to Stuyvesant that he says, " In my years of teaching this was the first time I felt free in the classroom." This bothers me a little because he is in a very prestigious school where students are looking to go to Harvard and Stanford and it's not until he has students that are "top notch" that he feels he can actually teach. I understand that you need to find your nitch whether it be elementary, middle, or high school students but thats normally where it ends. How come he coudln't adapt to the other schools students? It was not until he knew he didn't have to follow the regular curriculum because the kids were smart that he found himself and his teachings. What does this say for future teachers? Not everyone will be at a high class school and many would not want to be. I am not knocking him because I think his creativity in the classroom was phenomenal and the students responsed to this. The reason that Stuyvesant worked for him can be answered in one of the his quotes from the beginning of the book, "Even when I was small, eight or nine, I wondered why people won't stop bothering people and I've been wondering ever since." He is the type of person who wants to do his own thing and it was not until Stuyvesant that he didn't feel entirely threatened by his job, adminsitrators, students, etc.


"Make one mistake on your first day and it takes months to recover." pg. 12

"In the high school classroom you are a drill sergeant, a rabbi, a shoulder to cry on, a disciplinarian, a singer, a low-level scholar, a clerk, a referee, a clown, a counselor, a dress-code enforcer....." pg. 19

"Adolescents don't always want to be set afloat on seas of speculation and uncertainty. It satifies them to know that Tirana is the capital of Albania. They don't like it when Mr. McCourt says, Why was Hamlet mean to his mother, or why didn't he kill the king when he had the chance?" pg. 200

"Find what you love and do it." pg. 253

His epiphany!
"I was finding my own style of teaching. I was learning to be comfortable in the classroom. ...to do whatever I liked without bureaucratic interference..." pg. 204
"Why can't teachers treat us like human beings?" pg. 60