Teacher Man

It's a mistake to arrive early. It gives you too much time to think about what's going to happen.

Then Guy told the class about his experiences in the last two years. He'd suffered, but he wouldn't want to change anything about his past. He'd met many people in many hospitals whose lives were completely destroyed by illness and accidents. It had made him think differently about his own problems. It had made him feel lucky. No, he wouldn't change a thing.

One boy says it's strange to have a teacher who worked like a normal person. The boy says he used to think he wanted to work on the docks because the money was good. You could steal things easily. But his father was angry with him, and you don't argue in an Italian family. His father said,"If this Irishman can become a teacher, you can, too. Forget the docks. You might make money but what good is that when you can't straighten your back?"

They'll carry bits and pieces of your private life in their heads forever, and you'll never get them back. Your life, man. It's all you have. Tell them nothing.

Professors of education at New York Univercity never taught you how to manage flying-sandwich situations. Should I say, "Hey, Petey, come here and pick up that sandwich?" Should I pick it up myself and throw it into the wastepaper basket? They had to recognise I was boss. I was strong. I wasn't going to accept this kind of behavior.

Teachers are spoken to politely but they aren't respected: they're congratulated on having such long vacations. When teachers stop working, they disappear into the shadows, hoping that one child will remember them. Keep dreaming, teacher. You won't be celebrated.

A teacher's life is simular to a life of a professional fighter. One bad fight, and that's the end of your career.

It's the business of young people to push old people off the stage.

The kids are sixteen years old. They've been in school for eleven years. So, teachers come, teachers go. But kids watch, study, judge. They know body language, voice, general attitude, and appearance. They don't discuss these things with each other. After eleven years, they just know, and they pass the information on to the next group.

When I'd finished, I made a ball of the paper bag and threw it into the wastepaper basket. The class cheered. "Wow," they said. "Did you see that? He eats the sandwich. He hits the basket. Wow."

You’ll never grow old, but the danger is you might have the mind of an adolescent forever. That’s a real problem, Mac. You get used to talking to those kids on their level. Then when you go to a bar for a beer you forget how to talk to your friends and they look at you. They look at you like you just arrived from another planet and they’re right. Day after day in the classroom means you’re in another world, Mac.

In the high school classroom you are a drill sergeant, a rabbi, a shoulder to cry on, a disciplinarian, a singer, a low-level scholar, a clerk, a referee, a clown, a counselor, a dress-code enforcer, a conductor, an apologist, a philosopher, a collaborator, a tap dancer, a politician, a therapist, a fool, a traffic cop, a priest, a mother - father - brother - sister - uncle - aunt, a bookkeeper, a critic, a psychologist, the last straw.