Since the kids were all full of excuses, he assigned them to
write excuse notes such as one from Adam to God blaming Eve, and
vice versa
By John Hood
’Tis the Season,
thank Zeus. This means cool days, cooler eves, a slew of swinging
visitors, and — yes! — the Miami Book Fair International, now in its
23rd year.
And what better way
to precede the mighty Fair than through the Evenings With … series,
a lineup of the heaviest of heavyweights, the boldest of the
bold-faced, our very literary stars, one a night, each night, of the
six leading up to all the action.
Here’s where word
begins:
Frank McCourt
Sunday, Nov. 12
How many teachers
have you had that not only didn’t finish high school, but never went
in the first place? None? I didn’t think so. Well, some 12,000 New
York public school students had a teacher like that, and – get this
– they’re infinitely better for the having.
We speak of the
Pulitzer Prize-winning Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes,
’Tis and, now, Teacher Man (Simon & Schuster), an
account of his long days and many years schooling kids in the art of
writing. Having fled Depression-era New York for the worse of
Limerick, McCourt missed out on high school, but a later G.I. Bill
mandate did get him into NYU.
From there McCourt
mastered at Brooklyn College, and from then on he got very creative
about his teaching.
He had to. Since
the kids were all full of excuses, he assigned them to write excuse
notes such as one from Adam to God blaming Eve, and vice versa.
’Cause each believed they were invincible, he had them write their
own obituaries, in which all the kids inexplicably died peacefully
in their beds; then he had them write the obits of their teachers,
none of whom was given the same consideration.
More, McCourt
taught his kids to “overcome their resistance to grammar and poetry”
by illustrating the many ways language behaves.
Says the heated
ex-teacher: “In America, doctors, lawyers, generals, actors,
television people and politicians are admired and rewarded. Not
teachers. Teaching is the downstairs maid of professions. Teachers
are told to use the service door or go around the back.”
In Teacher Man,
alas and at last, those who teach might just get through the front
door.
Continued |
