Quotes from Taylor Mali

If you've ever been to a poetry slam, you know that the highest scoring emotion is self-righteous indignation: how dare you judge me. So in that way, the poem, 'What Teachers Make,' is an absolutely formulaic slam poem designed to allow me to get up on my soap box and say, 'Let me tell you what really makes me angry.'

The poem 'What Teachers Make' is not without its detractors. This one person wrote to me and said: 'Gee, Mr. Mali. You don't possibly have a teacher-God complex, do you?' And that was the first time I'd ever heard of that expression. So, yeah, I'm sure I have a teacher-God complex.

The best teachers that I had were always the ones I never wanted to disappoint.

In many ways, 'What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World' is just one big thank-you note to my teachers. The book is dedicated to my fifth and sixth grade English teacher, Dr. Joseph D'Angelo, a massive force of erudition, martial artistry, culture, and love.

Teachers today are breaking down obstacles, finding innovative ways to instill old lessons, proving that greatness can be found in everyday places.

When students have thanked me in the past for being their teacher, I have always felt that it was actually my love for the art of teaching they were speaking to.

Everything I do is kind of a lesson, even if I am the only person who learns it.

That's what teaching is, the art of explanation: presenting the right information in the right order in a memorable way.

Great teachers will never be able to make up for bad parents, nor should they be expected to.

Teachers shouldn't make the mistake of always thinking they're the smartest person in the room

The only thing that surprises me is the characterization of teachers as lazy and greedy. Only someone with very little understanding of what teaching requires would say such a thing.

I grew up writing thank-you notes. Real, honest-to-goodness, pen-and-ink, stamped and posted letters. More than simple habit, it's about what the commitment to expressing your thoughts and feelings in writing says about the character of the writer. About the joy such notes bring to the reader.

One of the most important things that teachers teach students is you, you can work harder. You are mentally tougher than you think.

Falling in love is like owning a dog.

Falling In Love Is Like Owning A Dog. Throw things away and love will bring them back, again, and again, and again. But most of all, love needs love, lots of it. And in return, love loves you and never stops.

We're the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along since, you know, a long time ago!

Because once upon a time, we grew up on stories and the voices in which they were told. We need words to hold us and the world to behold us for us to truly know our own souls.

You see, I have a policy about honesty and ass-kicking, which is, if you ask for it, then I have to let you have it.

Great teachers will never be able to make up for bad parents, nor should they be expected to.

Teachers shouldn't make the mistake of always thinking they're the smartest person in the room

Read to your children all of the time Novels and nursery rhymes Autobiographies, even the newspaper It doesn't mater; it's quality time Because once upon a time We grew up on stories in the voices in which they were told We need words to hold us and the world to behold us For us to truly know our souls

Everything I do is kind of a lesson, even if I am the only person who learns it.

Certainly teachers themselves can do a better job of letting the world know how hard their profession is, but frankly, they have real work to do and a lot of it, so they don't have a whole lot of free time on their hands.

How can you study geometry and not believe in a god? A god of perfect points and planes, surrounded by angels and angles of all different degrees...