AJC.com > Blogs > Get Schooled > Archives > 2006 > June > 02 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.US“There’s No Escape”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Okay, I knew I had something in mind to post on the last day of school. But…I went and forgot all about it. Here it is, a week late. It’s from Frank McCourt’s “Teacher Man,” and I swear this is my last post from his book, which for the record I enjoyed even though it didn’t work a lot of the time due to rambling, repetition and a disturbing level of self-hatred.
Here goes:
“Find what you love and do it. That’s what it boils down to. I admit I didn’t always love teaching. I was out of my depth. You’re on your own in the classroom, one man or woman facing five classes every day, five classes of teenagers. One unit of energy against 175 units of energy, 175 ticking bombs, and you have to find ways of saving your own life.
They may like you, they may even love you, but they are young and it is the business of the young to push the old off the planet. I know I’m exaggerating, but it’s like a boxer going into the ring or a bullfighter into the arena. you can be knocked out or gored and that’s the end of your teaching career. But if you hang on you learn the tricks. It’s hard, but you have to make yourself comfortable in the classroom. You have to be selfish. The airlines tell you if oxygen fails you are to put on your mask first, even if your first instinct is to save the child.
The classroom is a place of high drama. You’ll never know what you’ve done to, or for, the hundreds coming and going. You see them leaving the classroom: dreamy, flat, sneering, admiring, smiling, puzzled. After a few years you develop antennae. You can tell when you’ve reached them or alienated them. It’s chemistry. It’s psychology. It’s animal instinct. You are with the kids and, as long as you want to be a teacher, there’s no escape. Don’t expect help from the people who’ve escaped the classroom, the higher-ups. They’re busy going to lunch and thinking higher thoughts. It’s you and the kids. So, there’s the bell. See you later.”
Well, teachers, can you relate?
Comments
By Mz. B.
June 2, 2006 12:47 PM | Link to this
I, too, read “Teacher Man” [I know that should be underlined, but there is no way to do that..] and was happy to see that McCourt is aware of and mentions the “escapees”…[also know as the higher ups at the county office]…They always seem to “escape” being accountable and pass the blame on to the teachers…who really have no input into the curriculum, etc….Just think…all those teachers in Dekalb’s Sequoyah and McNair Middle Schools getting fired because the students didn’t make it. THey had absolutely no input on curiculum issues at any time…and certainly not on the “fix-it” programs [also known as “Cure du Jour “]…. …chosen by the higher ups to be implemented by the teachers. Yet they get all the blame…Clearing out the top heavy county offices and making their pay LESS than that of the teachers on the front lines would be a start…
By Meredith W.
June 2, 2006 01:59 PM | Link to this
yes i can relate but try 7 classes with 230 students that change every nine weeks. It is a performance, a dance if you will, and you can be shot if the acting does not work.