What Teachers Make by Taylor Mali
is an insightful memoir about a poem of the same name. In 1997 at a New Years
Eve party, a young, arrogant lawyer insulted the author by asking the
unnecessary question of what do teachers make? The answer to this question was
not given until the next day, when Mali wrote the poem, “What Teachers Make”.
His overall answer was simple: teachers make a difference. In the book, Mali
goes into a greater depth about all the elements in his poem. For each section
of the book, there are back-stories and examples that reveal the purpose of
every single line in his poem.
Mali, being a teacher for many
years, now goes around touring the world teaching about the art of poetry. He
went to graduate school for poetry but came out as a teacher; which makes his
answer to the lawyer’s question much more meaningful. He used both of his
passions to create his answer: teachers make a difference. Those four words are
his whole purpose. This makes this book appealing to all willing to read it. It
even states on the back cover: “What Teachers Make is a book that will be
treasured and shared by every teacher in America- and everybody who’s ever
loved or learned from one”.
As of now, I am on page 57 of 197.
In these 57 pages, I have learned about many of the teaching strategies Mali
had used during his career. One chapter in particular that really appealed to
the book’s pathos would be the chapter named “Calling Home”. This is about how
Mali makes phone calls home to families to tell them GOOD things about their
child. By doing so, Mali is able to allow parents to see a different side of
their child they may have never seen before. I believe that this example helps
Mali achieve his purpose of making a difference, because after receiving his
phone calls, not only do parents feel good, but the student now has an even
greater reason to do good. In the end, the teacher is the one who made the difference
in that child’s life.
Taylor Mali reading this poem What Teachers Make
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