Home For The Heart And The Education Of Frank Mccourt

Social justice and equity are concepts that affect everybody throughout their entire lives. In the 1800s, the Irish faced the two constantly. The poem “No Irish Need Apply,” The exhibit “Home for the Heart,” and the article “The Education of Frank McCourt” discuss the struggles of the Irish with poverty and discrimination. Frank McCourt, an Irishman himself, fights through all the problems and obstacles of social justice and equity he faces to become successful in life. Social justice and equity affect all people of all places. From the 1700s to the 1800s, the Irish were engaged in a battle against social injustice and inequity. From being denied jobs to being given little to no government support, millions of Irish people went up against
the unfair treatment and discrimination. Due to the potato famines and the hardships they brought, the Irish were forced to move out of their country and to new lands. The exhibit “ Home for the Heart” by the Irish American Heritage Museum states, “In the decade between 1845-1855, 1.8 million Irish people, mostly poor and illiterate Gaelic-speaking Catholic farmers and laborers left Ireland for Eastern Canada and the United States.“ Millions went on the try to find a better life, however, those who went to new lands such as America still met with injustice and inequity. The poem “No Irish Need Apply” by John F. Poole states, “But the dirty spalpeen ended with: No Irish Need Apply.” When the Irish made attempts to find jobs to apply for, many jobs looking for workers did not even want to give the Irish an attempt to work at their business or company. The only line of work wanted for the Irish people was fighting. The poem also states “Yet when they want good fighting-men, the Irish may apply… Then the Rebel ranks begin to think: No Irish need apply.” When it means laying down Irish lives to save their own, those who hire Irish for fighting are glad to accept Irish, but once the fighting is over, they cross the Irish and leave them to nothing. One man in particular, Frank McCourt, and Irishman, knew the struggles of social injustice and inequity all too well. Frank McCourt, a successful Irish-American teacher and writer, lived a rough early life, getting a taste of the tough world from an early age on.
Born into poverty, he had three siblings die young in age, and a father who’s problem with alcoholism prevented him from being able to support his family, and eventually led him to abandon them. McCourt had to work hard and make sacrifices throughout his life to support his family. The article “The Education of Frank McCourt” by Barbara Sande describes how McCourt “had to quit (high school) at age 14 to help support his family.” McCourt could not receive a proper high school education due to the need to protect his family in their hard times of poverty. As McCourt grew up and started teaching, he found that his students, whom he thought may judge him for what he has gone through, tought him over the years more than he had taught them. The article states McCourts thoughts about his students' possibly discriminating him for not having an education from high school: “If I tell them the truth, they’ll (students) feel superior to me.” McCourts past experiences led him to believe he would be judged by high school students as he had faced so much inequity and injustice earlier on in his life. McCourt comes to realize that he is able to put all of his difficulties and tough memories on paper and express them out to other people. Negativity is not the only thing that comes from social justice and equity, there is also the positive
side. Unlike Frank McCourt and the Irish people, I have experienced more justice and equity than injustice and inequity.
Last school year I was in the school’s drumline. During one of our first few practices, we were asked to play a relatively simple drum exercise. In the middle of playing the exercise, a freshman messed up, our instructor, Dave, stopped us and told us to start doing pushups. We were all confused, as we finished up the pushups, Dave told us to restart the drumming exercise. Mess up after mess up, we were stopped over and over again, being told to do crunches, planks, pushups, and more. As we were all about to play once again, frustrated and exhausted, Dave stopped us and said “you are all missing the point, you all responsible for each other, if you mess up, not only are you ruining it for yourself, but for the entire drumline.” What Dave said got the whole drumline to realize that all of us, who come from different places and have different stories, barely knowing each other, completely depend on each other to succeed, knowing we have treat each other with respect and help one another rather than getting mad at each other. The very next attempt we made at playing the exercise was perfect. With a smile on our instructor’s face came an important message he said : ”you play together, you face the consequences together, you fail or succeed together.” The lesson that I learned that will go along with me as an adult will be that when it comes to teamwork,
regardless of who your teammates are, you will have to come together as one to succeed. This gave me a positive memory of equity and working together as one. Social justice and equity play a large part in the Irish people’s, McCourts, and my life. From discrimination in poverty to giving important lessons about teamwork, social justice and equity affect all people’s lives. The effects from the two concepts can be positive or negative. In the future, the positive may outweigh the negative and the people will live on with social justice and equity, bringing along peace everywhere.