I can't go back. The past won't go away in this family.
Frank MccourtRead
There's nothing in the world like getting up in front of a high-school classroom in New York City. They won't give you a break if you don't hold them. There's no escape.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Teaching in a challenging environment demands authenticity and resilience from educators.
Frank McCourt's quote encapsulates the reality of teaching in a high-pressure urban classroom, where students are unyielding and expect genuine engagement from their teachers. This environment forces educators to be authentic, reinforcing the idea that there is no hiding or evasion in such an influential role; teachers must fully embrace their responsibilities and connect with their students to succeed.
Themes
TeachingEducationClassroomAuthenticityEngagement
In practice
Example use cases
In a professional development workshop, a speaker might quote this to emphasize the challenges and rewards of teaching.
More from Frank Mccourt
All quotes →Sit and quiet yourself. Luxuriate in a certain memory and the details will come. Let the images flow. You'll be amazed at what will come out on paper. I'm still learning what it is about the past that I want to write. I don't worry about it. It will emerge. It will insist on being told.
Frank MccourtRead
Kids all want to look cool, as if knowledge is a great burden, but they're always looking around. They remember.
Frank MccourtRead
That's what kept us going - a sense of absurdity, rather than humor.
Frank MccourtRead
A mother's love is a blessing No matter where you roam. Keep her while you have her, You'll miss her when she's gone -- Angela's Ashes.
Frank MccourtRead
You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace.
Frank MccourtRead
Similar quotes
Woe be to him that reads but one book.
George HerbertRead
If you are in a country that is progressive, the woman is progressive. If you're in a country that reflects the consciousness toward the importance of education, it's because the woman is aware of the importance of education. But in every backward country you'll find the women are backward, and in every country where education is not stressed its because the women don't have education.
Malcolm XRead
Write regularly, day in and day out, at whatever times of day you find that you write best. Don't wait till you feel that you are in the mood. Write, whether you are feeling inclined to write or not.
Arnold J. ToynbeeRead
Many have marked the speed with which Muad'Dib learned the necessities of Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit, of course, know the basis of this speed. For the others, we can say that Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad'Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson.
Frank HerbertRead
The anthropologist must relinquish his comfortable position in the long chair on the veranda of the missionary compound, Government station, or planter's bungalow, where, armed with pencil and notebook and at times with a whisky and soda, he has been accustomed to collect statements from informants.... He must go out into the villages, and see the natives at work in gardens, on the beach, in the jungle; he must sail with them to distant sandbanks and to foreign tribes.
Bronislaw MalinowskiRead
[I]f the writer does his job right, what he basically does is remind the reader of how smart the reader is.
David Foster WallaceRead