Writing about teaching for
the eyes of non-teachers is important work. Frank McCourt did it more
successfully in the past decade than just about anyone else I can think of.
I read ‘Tis in the spring of my first year teaching, and his frenetic passages on the suffocating minutiae that dominate the school day set off fireworks in my brain. This is exactly what I’m going through! I thought. And there I was teaching fourth grade in the Bronx in 2003 and he was writing about a vocational school in Staten Island in the sixties. Our experiences are all connected! Who knew?
I’d had no idea, trapped in my classroom box, that my everyday anxieties, fears, and successes were parallel to that of so many teachers around the world. This realization, boosted by Frank McCourt’s writing, was the central motivator that kept me in teaching. You’re not alone, and what you’re doing matters.
McCourt’s latter two
books, ‘Tis and Teacher Man, aren’t perfect, but they are great material for
sparking discussion on classroom life for teachers and non-teachers alike.
Mr. McCourt passed away earlier this week, but his legacy of writing authentically about teaching is one that buoys TLN members and so many educators across the country.
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