Teacher Man: A Memoir

Teacher Man: A Memoir

by Frank McCourt

 

  

 

 

"Instead of teaching, I told stories. Anything to keep them quiet and in their seats. They thought I was teaching. I thought I was teaching. I was learning."

 

"Just let them sit in the goddam sun. But the world won't let them because there's nothing more dangerous than letting old farts sit in the sun. They might be thinking. Same thing with kids. Keep 'em busy or they might start thinking."

“You have to give yourself credit, not too much because that would be bragging.”

“There are so many ways of saying Hi. Hiss it, trill it, bark it, sing it, bellow it, laugh it, cough it. A simple stroll in the hallway calls for paragraphs, sentences in your head, decisions galore.” 

“On the Left side of the blackboard I print a capital F on the right side another capital F. I draw an arrow from left to right, from FEAR to FREEDOM. I don’t think anyone achieves complete freedom, but what I am trying to do with you is drive fear into a corner” 

“When I act tough they listen politely till the spasm passes. They know.”

“There's nothing sillier in the world than a teacher telling you don't do it after you already did it.” 

“A job is death without dignity.” 

“To enter a room is to move from one environment to another and that, for the teenager, can be traumatic. There be dragons, daily horrors from acne to zit.” 

“You can't teach in a vacuum. A good teacher relates the material to real life. You understand that, don't you?” 

“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.” 

“Everything in my head was secondhand, too: Catholicism; Ireland's sad history, a litany of suffering and martyrdom drummed into me by priests, schoolmasters and parents who knew no better.”