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Frank McCourt’s talk paints portrait of aspiring teacher as a young man
The Pulitzer-winning author of ‘Angela’s Ashes’ talked his way into college.
WARREN — To be a successful high school teacher, you have to have empathy for the adolescent. It’s a time in life that can be tough on anyone.
Frank McCourt certainly knows about tough childhoods. Perhaps that’s why he became a teacher.
The author of “Angela’s Ashes” spoke at Packard Musical Hall on Wednesday, as part of the Trumbull Town Hall series.
“Angela’s Ashes” is a captivating memoir of McCourt’s life in Limerick, Ireland, where he came of age in a loving but hardscrabble family wracked by dire poverty.
Wearing a gray suit and with a full shock of gray hair, McCourt talked about his career as a high school teacher in New York City, peppering his speech with anecdotes and humor. He shared some of his techniques for getting students’ attention and motivating them.
McCourt still bears more than a trace of his Irish lilt, and every bit of the story-telling charm on display in “Angela’s Ashes,” which won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize and was made into a feature film in 1999. His wit was also on display in his hourlong speech before about 1,300 at Packard.
After making it to America at age 19, McCourt had no idea what to do with himself, and no prospects for advancement.
“I was saved by the Chinese, who attacked Korea,” he said. “ The U.S. Army turned to me. They said, ‘He’s Irish, he knows about animals. I didn’t, because I grew up in the city. But they sent me to Germany to be a dog trainer. ... Turns out it was a good preparation for being a teacher.”
When his Army stint was up, McCourt found himself back in New York working on the docks, still with no high school diploma. Inspiration came to him one afternoon while he sat in a bar. He left his beer and walked across the street to New York University.
“They laughed when I told them I had no degree,” he said. “I told them I read a lot. Just at that moment, the dean of admissions walked by and said ‘What’s going on?’ She wanted to know what I read. ... I said ‘Dostoevsky,’ and I started getting somewhere. She said, ‘What else?’ I said ‘James Joyce ‘“Ulysses”’. That was it. No one can understand James Joyce. They admitted me on a probationary basis.”
On his first day as a teacher, a fight erupted and a bologna sandwich was thrown.
“I picked it up and unwrapped it. It was no ordinary bologna sandwich — meat slapped between two tasteless slices of white American bread. This was on thick dark bread, baked by an Italian woman in Brooklyn. It had a rich bologna, fresh tomatoes, a tongue-dazzling relish. ...”
He paused for effect.
“ I ate the sandwich.”
McCourt had a distinguished career in the New York school system, mostly at Stuyvesant High School, a competitive-entry academy that accepts only the city’s brightest. After his retirement, he wrote “Angela’s Ashes” and its follow-ups, “’Tis” and “Teacher Man.”
McCourt remains upbeat about the American education system and its students. He says it’s important to daydream — even if only because it gets kids away from their iPods and video games.
He also says there is much a teacher can learn from his students.
“Everything I learned about life I learned standing in front of those kids,” he said. “You have to be on your toes. Students size you up. If you survive for 35 years as I did, you have to give yourself a pat on the back.”