Open Access
American Research Journal of English and Literature
ISSN (Online): 2378-9026
DOI: 10.46568/arjel
The “Excuse Notes” in Teacher Man
Abstract
In McCourt’s Teacher Man, the students in the school, where McCourt works as a teacher, are reluctant to write any writing
tasks, either in class or at home, due to their difficulties in completing them. However, when writing the assignments of
McCourt’s course, the students suddenly become brilliant, and what they produce is considered by the teacher as the finest
American prose. More importantly, rather than having a genuine desire to write assignments, the students’ desperate
longing for McCourt’s course assignments is solely motivated by their hope for exemption from any assignments, so their
psychology and behaviour are paradoxical. Based on Erika Fromm’s theory of dreams and wish-fulfillment, this paper
uncovers that the reason why McCourt’s students have a desperate craving for writing the assignment in his course, which
is writing excuse notes, is that it is a process to address their personal problems that cannot be solved in the real world.
Moreover, according to the concept of Outcome Based Education (OBE), one of the goals of education is to equip students
with the abilities and competencies to solve the problems they are faced with outside of school. Therefore, this paper will
explore the problems that McCourt’s students want to resolve in the real world through an analysis of the events described
in the fake excuse notes written by the students themselves and the social situation of their time, in order to enlighten
teachers about the types of abilities and competencies that students must cultivate for their growth and development.
