Teacher Man: A Memoir by Frank McCourt

One of the best books I have ever read.

McCourt's writing style is lush and cadenced. No gobbledygook. His words are lyrical and rhythmical, imaginative and bustling, a literary Willy Wonka-esque factory of grammar and diction treats.

This book explicates, completely, the life of a teacher. I relate to all his descriptions of what it's like to face a classroom with the immense duty of educating these rebellious, hormonal, indifferent teenagers. He recounts situations of troublemakers, students grieving over a dying parent or moving between divorced parents or living on violent streets or some other sad and difficult life; he remembers struggling to keep discipline and going home with endless papers to read, check, grade. This is the most truthful account of what teaching is like that I have read. Nothing in graduate school as an education student, no class, no book, no instructor, no internship - nothing - related what being a teacher is really like as does this book.

McCourt is a storyteller. He not only tells his own story as a teacher, but also the many from his life he told his students. Those stories, his story, is that of someone eager to escape his poor Irish Catholic upbringing, always trying to become something more than he is. He goes to Stuyvesant High School, planning to stay only two years, hoping to eventually work in a plush office, his days filled with meetings and flying to conventions. Instead he stays many years more, until he retires. He goes to Dublin to pursue a Ph.D., but fails to complete his dissertation. Throughout his thirty years of teaching in New York and a failed marriage, he struggles to become comfortable as a teacher and with himself, always fearing being fired, always looking to solve his life's aimlessness, always thinking he should stick to the curriculum and be more of a disciplinarian, a traditional teacher. It is not until Stuyvesant that he finds his stride, his voice, himself. There he is allowed to teach as he wishes. No administrators hound him to read literature, diagram sentences, do grammar, to give multiple choice, essay, true and false, fill-in-the-blank tests. Instead, he grades on attendance, participation, if they read their writings, if they comment on classmates' writing, on whether they are able to reflect upon the class and say what they learned, and whether they used their imaginations. He has them play music and sing recipes, read about their own lives, write food reviews of the school cafeteria, and picnic in a park. Grammar, he says, behaves like a pen. Excuses are written for Adam and Eve to God. This is the teacher man. McCourt asks his students, "What is education, anyway? What are we doing in this school?" His answer is for them to achieve freedom, and in so striving down that educational Kerouacian trek, McCourt finds his own freedom, the comfort with himself and what he became that he always wanted.

Such a discovery is a joy to read about. It is inspiring that years later he finally finds himself, a reassurance to those who are still figuring themselves out, what to become, where to go, what it all means, and how to be okay with it. McCourt was in his 50s when this happened for him, and in his 60s when he published Angela's Ashes and 'Tis.

Jonathan Eig - Luckiest Man

This is a biography of Lou Gehrig, the legendary first baseman of the N Y Yankees of the 20's and 30's. I grew up thinking about Gehrig, Babe Ruth, and Ty Cobb. I grew up thinking about baseball period.

In this book I learned the following.

The Gehrig family is German. Lou Gehrig was second generation.
Gehrig was a shy and insecure man.
He lived at home with parents before he married Eleanor.
During the legendary season of 1927 he lived at home with his parents.
He was considered dull especially in comparison to Babe Ruth.
He hit the ball probably as hard as anyone who has ever played the game.
The disease that killed Gehrig, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, now popularly known as Lou Gehrig Disease, was first diagnosed in 1874. It is a horrible disease. The mind remains intact while the body's muscles slowly atrophy. The victim slowly loses all muscular control. To this day, we do not know the cause nor is there a cure.
Lou Gehrig was a model of courage and endurance.

Other books I've read recently

Richard Matheson - Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
I don't read many so-called horror stories, but Matheson is an exception. His horror is very literate and probably influences my writings.

Holly Smith - Alabama Ghosts
A gift from Dinah Denison. Delightful little ghost stories.

Keith Olbermann - Truth and Consequences
What a delightful collection of progressive commentaries! A perfect counterbalance to the rightwing trash that pollutes our culture.

Greg Iles - Third Degree

At first I was thrilled to discover this author and this novel. I thought that I might have found a replacement for Larry Brown. The novel was exciting at first as it takes place in Mississippi amongst different types of people than Larry Brown wrote about but there are some Larry Brown moments in the book. But by the end the novel started dragging along and ultimately came to a predictable end. I will not read any more Greg Iles novels.

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon

Not as good as his debut novel, but I liked reading this. Haddon has a touch for dialogue, and this book reaches more depth with its characters' emotions and problems. As is true in life, things are not clear cut for them, as their attempts to sort things out jumps among good and bad, detachment and earnest, anger and love, and everywhere else. Although our own lives sometimes reflect this haphazardness, I can't completely relate to the story, and I don't know why.