Frank McCourt and Other Teachers

"Long before he was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Frank McCourt was a teacher in the New York City schools. Relationships formed with 12,000 mostly teenaged students over 30 years form the basis for his new memoir, Teacher Man. McCourt tells Jacki Lyden about life in the classroom." Listen here, from All Things Considered (1/14/06 - 8:14)

Musings

1. What do we learn from reading the Prologue from Frank McCourt's book, Teacher Man?
   
   
2. How would you characterize McCourt's attitude towards teaching in his interview? Would such an attitude likely to make him a good or a bad teacher? Or to these teachers: Kimberly Oliver, the 2006 Teacher of the year (NPR interview, 6/5/06 - 6:31), a math teacher, Louis Leithold, or music teacher Johanna Grussner? Compare or contrast any two of these teachers.
   
   
3. Does McCourt or any of these other teachers remind you of any teachers you have ever had?