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Overall Summary
Teacher Man is a memoir by Frank McCourt, who was born in Ireland but raised in New York City. As an adult, he became a teacher and taught high school students and college students. The book focuses on his experiences as a teacher. It explores themes of responsibility, coming of age, and the influence teachers can have on their students. Teacher Man is shorter than McCourt’s other two books (Angela’s Ashes and ‘Tis), but it received positive reviews for its engaging voice and detailed descriptions of life experience.
After he finishes his second memoir, Frank McCourt begins teaching at McKee Vocational and Technical High School on Staten Island in New York City. He doesn’t see it as a career, but rather something to do while he figures out what else he wants to do with his life. Grateful for the steady salary that’s easier than working long hours on the docks, he still worries about how much longer this will last before everyone finds out that he knows nothing about teaching. The students and administrators are going to realize soon enough that they hired an imposter who has no idea what is going on around him. His first day of class gets off to a rough start when some students get into a fight and throw things like sandwiches at him. After trying unsuccessfully to get their attention by throwing the sandwich back at them, McCourt ends up eating it instead of letting it go bad or getting thrown away by someone else later on in the day if not for him picking it up then and there (and thus saving money). This stops the fight immediately, but soon after parents start complaining about McCourt’s unusual behavior—how can you expect kids not to misbehave when their teacher eats food right in front of them? They threaten dismissal from administration because of this strange behavior; however, since they’re short-staffed already due to budget cuts (and also since they don’t have anyone better), they keep McCourt around anyway despite his eccentricities until another job opportunity comes along for one of their other teachers whereupon said teacher quits without notice thereby leaving them yet again short-handed so once again they’re forced into keeping McCourtshire employed even though nobody really likes having him around anymore…
Telling stories from his childhood, Frank McCourt tries to relate to his students. He wants them to understand that he’s not just a teacher who stands in front of the class and lectures, but someone they can connect with on a personal level. To do this, he tells them about growing up as an Irish immigrant in New York City during the Great Depression. He also talks about his time serving in the army during World War II. The more engaged he becomes with these stories, the more connected he feels with his students and their lives. Therefore, when one student asks for a fake excuse note from Adam or Eve for eating an apple (in order to get out of doing homework), it seems like an easy way for him to engage them even further into writing creatively.
The book consists of stories about Frank McCourt’s students. Although there are also anecdotes involving his personal life at the time – he went back to college to attain his PhD, but the stress of his many obligations caused his first marriage to fall apart – the focus remains on the school. Some of the kids profiled in the story include Sal and his girlfriend Louise, a mixed Italian-Irish couple whose parents disapprove of their relationship. Their love is eventually broken up when Sal is attacked by an Irish gang who want to scare him off. McCourt wants to reach out to them and try to bring them back together, but he realizes he knows less than he thought about ethnic conflict in New York City. One of the persistent troublemakers at the school is Kevin Dunne, an unfocused boy who struggles with paying attention in class. He’s been bounced from teacher to teacher, and he eventually winds up in McCourt’s class as McCourt was considered one of lower-level teachers because no one wanted that job due its reputation for being hard (he wound up taking it because no one else did). This turns out be a blessing as McCourt is able inspire Kevin through art classes and give him an outlet for self-expression which changed Kevin’s life forever even though they only spent a year together before Kevin died during Vietnam War combat; sadly this just goes further show how little time teachers have with each student compared with other professions like medicine or law where you can spend years working closely with someone helping them overcome problems which makes teaching so difficult yet rewarding if you’re successful (McCourte later became disillusioned by this experience after seeing how much better doctors were paid despite having less impact on people lives than good teachers). The book ends as McCourte moves onto another position while writing memoirs
