“Find what you love and do it. That's what it boils
down to. I admit I didn't always love teaching. I was out of my depth. You're
on your own in the classroom, one man or woman facing five classes every day,
five classes of teenagers. One unit of energy against one hundred and
seventy-five units of energy, one hundred and seventy-five ticking bombs, and
you have to find ways of saving your own life. They may like you, they may even
love you, but they are young and it is the business of the young to push the
old off the planet.”—Longtime Irish-American teacher—and Pulitzer Prize-winning
memoirist—Frank McCourt (1930-2009),
Teacher Man (2005)
If we are lucky, most of us have had a teacher who’s
made a difference in our lives. Too bad so much abuse gets hurled unfairly at
such people who give so much of themselves; they’ll never get to hear the
praise from those who feel that they are more of an inspiration than they can
ever know.
(The image accompanying this post, showing Frank
McCourt at a reading in Cologne, Germany, was taken Sept. 12, 2006 by Elke
Wetzig.)
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