LESSONS LEARNED

A debut memoirist reflects on his career as a high school teacher and coach in this essay collection.

Burke opens the book with an anecdote from his childhood in the 1960s: One of eight Irish Catholic children, the author describes one evening while his parents were away when he was pressured by his siblings into taking a shot of 190-proof Kentucky moonshine. The potentially disastrous event (he passed out almost instantly) has since become a piece of family “comedy” retold and still laughed over today by the brothers and sisters. This story sets the tone for Burke’s account of teaching English at five different high schools in the Chicago area, ranging from private Catholic suburban institutions to an inner-city public school—a career well suited for someone from a rough-and-tumble upbringing who was able to laugh at the constant chaos. Burke eschews a standard chronological narrative for a more reflective approach that positions autobiographical vignettes as metaphors for the themes and lessons that undergirded his career. The topics include the author’s experiences coaching multiple sports and the differences between teaching at private versus public schools. Burke relates self-deprecating stories about the early mistakes he made as a white teacher in a racially diverse Chicago high school; he also discusses his perspective on Catholic education as a graduate of the University of Notre Dame who attended and taught at parochial schools. (“Corporal punishment and Catholicism go hand-in-hand,” he observes while describing a particularly violent student-teacher confrontation.) The text certainly doesn’t glamorize teaching as a profession, and Burke tells his stories with the salty vocabulary of a battle-hardened veteran, but the work warmly acknowledges the inspiration, motivation, and rewarding feelings that come with helping teenagers grow into adults. The book’s final essay, an ode to the poetry of Walt Whitman, offers a powerful defense of the necessity of literature.

A well-crafted meditation on teaching that balances comic anecdotes with poignant reflections.