Joanne Harris and Frank McCourt

Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat, on her years as a teacher;

Forget the curriculum: everything you say or do in front of your pupils may shape the future. Young minds are malleable, for good or ill; yours is the responsibility to influence them for the better. Years later, your words may be remembered - with affection or with hatred. A sarcastic comment or a word of praise may sow unexpected seeds. All you have to do is to log onto such sites as Friends Reunited to know how deeply our schooldays mark us. Our closest friendships begin at school. Our oldest resentments hark back to that time. And sometimes, something happens that may haunt us forever, that may follow us into adult life and erupt years later into unexpected violence.

Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes on his years as a teacher;

When I started teaching I moved through a thick fog. I didn't know who I was. I didn't know what I was teaching and I didn't know how to teach it. I stumbled and floundered as the fog slowly parted and lifted. There were days when I wanted to throw myself into the Hudson River but there were other days the teaching was so exhilarating I wanted to walk on water. I toiled away in the classrooms of New York City and thought often of the classrooms of my Irish childhood. I envied the American students their freedom, till I began to realise they winced under a different type of stick, strap, cane - the threat of failure if they didn't fit in, conform, pass that multiplechoice test. I made a great discovery in the classrooms of New York City: myself. When you teach you see bits of yourself in the eyes of your students, till one day the bits begin to come together and you say, "Oh, I'm glad this happened before the next fog closes in."