Penguin Readers, 2008. — 80 pages. Level 4.Адаптация для промежуточного уровня, упражнения и глоссарий в конце книги.When Frank McCourt becomes a teacher in New York, he finds himself standing in front of bored, confused, angry students. Will he fail as a teacher? Or can he use his miserable Irish childhood to help his students? This is the true story of one man’s surprising, upsetting, but sometimes very funny experiences in the classroom.Petey threw his brown-paper sandwich bag at Andy; and the class cheered excitedly. The bag landed on the floor between the blackboard and Andy's desk.
I came from behind my desk and made the first sound of my teaching career: Hey.
They ignored me. I moved toward Petey and made my first teacher statement: Stop throwing sandwiches.
Petey and the class looked shocked.This is how Frank McCourt’s teaching career begins—and it
doesn’t get easier! As a young man, Frank McCourt leaves his
poor, miserable childhood in Ireland behind him and moves to
New York. He works hard and studies hard, and soon becomes
a teacher in a school where the students have no interest in
learning. Many of them are almost impossible to teach, with
terrible problems at home and in school. McCourt is faced with
students like Kevin Dunne, who nobody wants to teach, and
Serena, who causes many problems but, in the end, almost makes
him cry with happiness. There is Hector, who thinks that his
teacher is just another crazy, drunk, violent Irishman, and Andrew,
who angers McCourt but who knows a secret about his teacher’s
past.
For thirty years, from the 1950s to the 1980s, McCourt sails
the stormy seas of the New York education system. His stories of
classrooms, meetings with parents, disagreements with principals,
his own personal problems, and his hopes for the future are all
beautifully described. How will this caring, book-loving man
with his poor Irish childhood and low self-confidence survive the
classrooms of New York? What effect will his own special, unusual
way of teaching have on the bored, angry, confused students in his
classes? And what effect will they have on him? This is a true story
Many readers may be surprised by the problems that Frank
McCourt finds in the classrooms of New York. Even today, when
more than 85% of adults in the U.S. have completed high school
and 27% have a university degree, there are many Americans who
have difficulty reading and writing. McCourt’s experiences in
the second half of the last century are sad, amusing, interesting,
and entertaining, but they paint a thoughtful, often frightening,
picture of the expectations and realities of poor Americans.
There are two main types of high school in the U.S.: public and
private. About 10% of students go to private schools. The others
go to schools which are paid for by the government. Students
have to complete twelve years of education before they can go
to college or university. When McCourt was teaching, there were
many excellent public high schools—like Stuyvesant High School
in New York, where he taught for a time. But there were many
others—vocational high schools—which suffered from financial
difficulties, poor conditions, and low levels of success.
McCourt spends his first years as a teacher in these vocational
schools. He tries to interest his students in literature and ideas, but
it is difficult. The students want to leave school and earn money as
secretaries, hairdressers, or dock workers. In many ways, these are
unhappy years for McCourt because he thinks that he is failing.
But in other ways, they are a great success. His own difficult
childhood helps him understand his students’ problems, and his
special gifts as a teacher bring surprising, often amusing, results.
Frank McCourt was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1930,
but went to Ireland when he was four years old. There, he had
a tough, poor, miserable childhood. His father, Malachy, was
usually unemployed, and when he was earning, he spent much
of the money on alcohol. His mother, Angela, had to beg for
money from churches to feed her children. Frank became very
sick and almost died. While he was in the hospital, he was able
to eat regular meals for the first time—and there were books
to read. He first read Shakespeare in the hospital, and McCourt
remembers the importance of this in his first book, Angela's Ashes
(1996): I don’t know what it means and I don’t care because it’s
Shakespeare and it’s like having jewels in my mouth when I say
the words.
When he was nineteen years old, McCourt returned to New
York and earned a degree from New York University. That was
the beginning of his career as an English teacher. Angela's Ashes,
which describes his childhood in Ireland, came out when he was
sixty-six years old and has been made into a movie. Although it is
a sad, often upsetting story, it contains scenes of powerful beauty
and humor. The book was a great success, and McCourt received
the famous Pulitzer Prize for it in 1997. His second book, ’Tis
(1999) continues the story of his life, and his third book, Teacher
Man (2005), describes his life and experiences as a New York
school teacher.
His brother, Malachy, is also a writer. Together they wrote
the stage play A Couple of Blaguards, about their childhood
experiences.
