Taking off the "Teacher Mask"

Before writing his acclaimed memoir Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (who passed away last month) was a high school English teacher in Manhattan.

One of his former students recently wrote an essay in tribute to McCourt which included this praise:

"Frank McCourt was a wonderful teacher. He wanted us to take our blinders off, reflect on the world broadly, get off the professional treadmill, and note the things around us. He was able to touch us so effectively, I suspect, because, just as he sought to escape the suffocating provincialism of Limerick, he knew many of us were seeking to escape the parochialism of our own families' lives." (Kenneth R. Weinstein, The Master of Class 205, printed in The Weekly Standard, August 3, 2009).

That observation from a past student neatly folds into McCourt's own self assessment. In a 2007 address to Syracuse University's graduating class, McCourt credited his teaching success on two factors: (1) extirpating his pomposity, and (2) learning about himself. He put it this way:

"I had to take off the teacher mask, which so many of us put on at the beginning; the mask that says: 'Well, I'm the teacher and I know it all. You sit there and I'll tell you.'"

I wonder if we, as adjuncts, wear more or fewer "masks" than our full-time counterparts. I think some of our masks are borne not out of pomposity but out of insecurity. It takes a certain confidence to take the risks that student-centered teaching requires, yes? Isn't the theory rooted in heavy reliance on others (the students) for a successful class?

In any event, the article and the commencement address both are worth a read. Even though McCourt taught high school, I think there are ideas that transfer to the college setting.