Aunque a veces tiene un humor demasiado amargo (o adulto) y presuntuoso... sigue siendo un libro casi excelente. La descripción de lo que es ser un profesor y los ejemplos cotidianos... ah, es tan inspirador y a la vez tan cierto. Siendo profesora yo misma, y años después, puedo decir que los alumnos no han cambiado. Tampoco los que luchamos contra ellos y, a la vez, procuramos amarlos. Porque sí, hay mucho amor involucrado, y es que no puede hacerse esa labor de otra manera.

Consuela, además, saber, que McCourt también a veces se lo comieron con papas fritas, jajaja, por mucho que su gracia incluso haya llegado a significarle un Pulitzer Hace que uno se sienta menos sola en el momento de la caída épica. No es mentira que dar una clase suele ser una lucha y, en palabras del autor, no porque los alumnos sean malos, sino que porque son humanos y se aburren y además son muchos, mientras que el profe es solo uno, solitario frente al aula. Y toda esa energía rebosante, el ocasional despliegue malévolo... no es a propósito. Todos hacemos (en general) lo que podemos.

Terminar la saga (tercer y último librio autobiográfico), me dejó con un gusto dulce, pero también con un resquicio amigo. No es culpa eso último, en todo caso, de McCourt: éste no hizo más que cumplir con el sino de todos los seres vivientes, nacimiento, crecimiento, declive y despedida y además contarlo, y contarlo bien. Quizá es solo que estoy sentimental. Ya he dicho que me ha tocado mucho leer sobre esos temas. No sé si ha sido una casualidad o es que simplemente se escribe más cuando uno está tratando de dejar ir, en especial la vida. El hombre no sólo estaba describiendo su propio viaje, sino que también despidiéndose. Aunque, para ser franca, apenas habla de los años posteriores del ocaso. Así que, s��, quizá sí estoy siendo sentimental.

Agregaré que tampoco me gustó su absoluta falta de empatía con su matrimonio... su auto-condescendencia por así decirlo, y en especial porque ni siquiera se lo cuestionó, ni siquiera fue un tema: (spoiler) ser infiel sin culpa y además emborracharse tantas veces de lo lindo. Mal, McCourt. Se aprecia que fueses sincero, pero... bueno, a veces las personas queremos creer que el género humano es mejor que eso y etcétera. En palabras más directas: qué onda tú (léase con profundo tono reprobatorio).

Sin embargo, en conclusión y de todas formas, me pareció un libro BUENÍSIMO. Una joya de veridismo, en especial para los profesores y escrito, en general, con mucha gracia. Se nota la experiencia de tantos años en aula, el dramatismo añadido y practicado que uno aprende en clases para mantener la atención del "público". Se nota el ojo aguzado. Y se nota el afecto.

Teacher Man is as good example as any that if you have wit and personality you can tell an entertaining story. Told with an Irish accent helps too.

I think McCourt, with his humble yet playful, self-degrading Irish charm could read from the phone book and hold a reader's attention. But he has lots to say worth hearing, as he recounts thirty years of teaching in New York's high schools and community colleges.

A working class, blue collar teacher in the trenches, McCourt helped me better appreciate teaching as a profession; this is an enjoyable book.

Iedere docent zou dit boek moeten lezen, want dit gaat eens niet over lesplannen, doelen, aspecten en werkplanners, maar over hoe het echt is om voor de klas te staan in alle openheid en eerlijkheid, maar wel met kennis van zaken in een voortdurende zelfreflectie.

Frank McCourt: The Irish-American Larry McMurtry?

I ended up with mixed feelings about this book. I loved -- no, adored -- the first section of this wry, honest memoir. The second section was solid, also, but felt a little out of place. (My reaction: What? McCourt's in Dublin drinking, cheating on his wife, and not getting the doctorate he's supposed to be working on? What does this have to do with his high school teaching career?) The third section returns to and wraps up his teaching career. It should be the climax, I guess, except that this is more memoir than novel, but what it really is, is too swift.

The quotes on the back cover say Teacher Man is the best in McCourt's trilogy (meaning it supposedly surpasses the Pullitzer Prize-winning Angela's Ashes). Now, I have not read the two previous memoirs, but if McCourt's too-brief conclusion to Teacher Man leaves me hanging after one 250-page book, I have to wonder if I wouldn't have liked it even less if it were the capper to THREE 250-page books.

Still, Teacher Man is impossible not to recommend.

(review in English below)

Interessante, mas acabou por me irritar um pouco o discurso de McCourt, que por vezes até me pareceu algo desconexo, descrevendo apenas episódios mais ou menos caricatos da sua vida como um professor de liceu irlandês em Nova Iorque e repetindo ad nauseam informações sobre o número de turmas e alunos que teve.

Acredito que os professores encontrarão muitos pontos em comum com esta narrativa, embora os contextos sejam bastante diferentes. E alguns dos recursos educativos utilizados pelo autor nas suas aulas de Inglês e de Escrita Criativa são de facto originais, conseguindo cativar os alunos mais difíceis.

Recomendo especialmente (para não dizer exclusivamente) a professores do secundário.

Yes, it's interesting, but McCourt's narrative ended up annoying me and it even seemed he was rambling sometimes, just telling more or less funny anecdotes of his life as an Irish high school teacher in New York and repeating ad nauseam how many classes and students he had.

I believe teachers will find many points in common with this story, although the contexts may be quite different. And some educational resources used by the author in his English and Creative Writing classes are indeed unconventional, managing to captivate the most difficult students.

I recommend it especially (if not exclusively) to high school teachers.

I will say that this book is at least stronger than 'Tis. It's due to a combination of McCourt's writing style/wit, as well as the content of said book and his teaching journey. I found this book easier to connect with than 'Tis, but not quite as strong as Angela's Ashes. Overall, the trilogy as a whole is a pretty good read, and this book provides a satisfying conclusion to Frank McCourt's story.

i'm fascinated, as usual by the negative reviews of this book. ive never read anything that spoke to me about teaching the way this book did, and about the rest of the stuff we're all to deal with in general. perhaps the people who dont get it arent rebels at heart...perhaps they are individuals who havent had a boss scold them or perhaps theyve just always felt in control. but i am grateful for this book, and moreso for frank mc court writing about everything he chose to detail in all three, angela's ashes, tis, and teacher man with the voice with which he chose to portray them - humor. its humor, its all humor, which apparently some people didnt get...

im sure we all gravitate towards books that speak about our own experiences and from our own view point. so other than not being irish, ive dealt with alcholic loved ones, and being misunderstood and fired at work, and mostly, teaching the hardest population to teach, which i do in juvenile hall and camp in los angeles.

after wondering about how long it was going to be so hard...i found my copy of teacher man and skimmed through it - there it was, the scene about what you find in the classroom with the doo-whoppers in the back of the room singing...as nowadays we have "rappers" who not only constantly rap, but beat on the desk. and of course my favorite, the story of the sandwich on his first day, AND getting scolded by the principal, AND then bonding with his students over it. exactly which part of this book didn't people get? and condescending it certainly IS NOT. I LOVE YOU FRANK MC COURT, FOR GIVING ME PEACE OF MIND AND REMINDING ME THAT I SHOULD ALWAYS, ALWAYS WALK INTO THAT CLASSROOM WITH MY SENSE OF HUMOR IN TACT. Any teacher who walks in the room with out one, well you might think you are a "grand" teacher, but in the end, the best teachers are the ones who simply love their students, therefore love being a teacher.

especially an english teacher because the meaning is always more important than the spelling or punctuation...

4 stars- English Ebook and Dutch paperback

A man saw me finish this book on a very crowded train and asked whether I enjoyed it. I was so happy to tell someone how much I loved this book and his other two.

I actually liked this one the least, but that barely matters. I loved it almost the same. He was an engaging and hilarious writer.

He would have been better if he'd been a tad more honest with himself about himself but I guess then he wouldn't be Frank McCourt. I'm sad he didn't leave us with more of his wonderful stories.

E' il primo libro di McCourt che mi capita di leggere, anche se Adelphi ne ha pubblicati altri due, sempre autobiografici. In questo l'autore si concentra sui suoi lunghi anni d'insegnamento nelle scuole superiori di New York. La prima parte è molto divertente, brillante, si simpatizza subito con questo "povero" professore costretto ad avere a che fare con branchi di alunni adolescenti senza controllo. La seconda parte è invece più frammentata, non so se fosse stanco di scrivere, ma sembra aver riunito alcuni ricordi su vari alunni e situazioni grottesche, educative, buffe, strazianti, e averle riunite in sequenza senza un filo logico molto lineare, ma merita di sicuro di essere letto.

4 estrellas, ya que es de esos libros que empiezas a leer y no esperas mucho de él... Y lo terminas con una sonrisa grande...

“There's nothing sillier in the world than a teacher telling you don't do it after you already did it.”

Debo de admitir que al empezar a leer este libro me lleve una impresión mala del mismo... no terminaba de ser un libro de carácter bibliográfico, que en lugar de comentar lo que hace a una persona ser profesor, tan solo aparentaba ser un anecdotario de la vida de Frank McCourt.

“That's what he disliked about certain artists and writers. They interfered and pointed to everything as if you couldn't see it or read for yourself.”

Después de leer algo mas, me di cuenta que esta forma de hilar la historia, hacia que la lectura fuera fácil y amena. sin pelos en la lengua te cuenta de sus encuentros sexuales y casuales, sin miedo a decirte de sus fracasos en este sentido así como escolares y sociales.

“You can't teach in a vacuum. A good teacher relates the material to real life. You understand that, don't you?”

La magia del libro es que no busca ser una guía de lo que debe de ser un profesor, sino explicarte cuales fueron las características que a el le funcionaron. ese anecdotario es algo que se puede repetir tanto en las aulas de una secundaria de New York como en las de una universidad en Sinaloa (donde soy docente).

“This is the situation in the public schools of America: The farther you travel from the classroom the greater your financial and professional rewards.”

Nos sirve para recordar que un profesor no es un trabajo mas, sino que es una actividad que trasciende las aulas y la función del profesor marca a los alumnos para bien y para mal. llena de errores, cosas que espero no hacer y cometer, pero también enseñanzas que debemos de llevarnos con nosotros. no busca ser un ejemplo a seguir, pero si un recordatorios que esto que estas viviendo, lo han vivido (y sufrido) otros antes que tu.

“El aula es un lugar de gran dramatismo. Nunca sabes lo que has hecho para o por los centenares de alumnos que llegan y se van. Los ves salir del aula: soñadores, apagados, burlones, con admiración, sonrientes, desconcertados”

There is no other way of seeing McCourt than as a master and genius. He has such a unique and wonderful and engaging writing style. I felt all the joys and frustrations of being a teacher right alongside him, although I’ve never been a teacher. To think he spent his life with high school kids that I’d probably have choked to death - then went on to write three PERFECT books in his 60s and 70s. Wow. This was a great book. No surprise.

i hated this book. i didn't like the style of his writing. i didn't like the way he talked about his teaching and what he did in his classroom. as i kept on reading, i was just like- dude- you are not a good teacher. but maybe it's just the way he presented himself.

when i got to the end, i was like- so. what was the point? but i guess the point was that this is part of his life story.