Reflection on "Teacher Man"

One of my assignments for this educational psychology class is to read a book about education. My discussion group chose to read the book "Teacher Man" by Frank McCourt. I just finished it over Fall Break, and enjoyed it very much. Instead of blogging about the chapters from the textbook, I am going to use this blog to reflect on a couple key quotations from the book "Teacher Man."

McCourt writes this in Chapter 13: "You can't be liked by every one of the hundreds of kids you have every year" (p. 207 in my version). This idea stuck with me. I had worried about being liked by my students. I want to be liked by all of them, but this quote made me realize that that is very unlikely to happen. Even a successful teacher like McCourt was not liked by some of his students. As McCourt did throughout his teaching career, I will try to reach out to the students who dislike me, and change their opinion.

A second quote from Chapter 13: "I ask you, is it the task of the teacher to supply canon fodder for the military-industrial complex? Are we shaping packages for the corporate assembly line?" (p. 211) This quote seems to fit perfectly with our discussions in class. We have focused on No Child Left Behind and how it can take away creativity in the classroom. McCourt's quote seems to support creativity and not support teaching to get a good score on a standardized test. As a music teacher, I will not have to prepare my students for a standardized test, so I will hopefully be able to teach creative, interesting lessons, like I remember learning in elementary school music class.

I will finish this post with a quote that eased some of my worries about teaching. "Find what you love and do it" (p. 255). I love sharing the joys music with children, so I know that I am supposed to be a music teacher, and I will enjoy doing it for the rest of my life.