Taylor Mali Quotes & Sayings

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

A mother or father might be too preoccupied with how one child compares with another to be able to fully appreciate the uniqueness of the individual child. — Taylor Mali

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. — Taylor Mali

Who can teach when there are such lessons to be learned — Taylor Mali

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. — Taylor Mali

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. — Taylor Mali

A poem is the perfect place to celebrate imperfection and exult in the ways you fall short of being the person you want to be. — Taylor Mali

Say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks the determination with which you believe it. — Taylor Mali

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. — Taylor Mali

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. — Taylor Mali

I implore you, I entreat you and I challenge you to speak with conviction. To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks the determination with which you believe it. Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker, it is not enough these days to simply question authority - you've got to speak with it too. — Taylor Mali

Here, let me break it down for you,
so you know what I say is true:
Teachers? Teachers make a difference!
Now what about you? — Taylor Mali

Simply put, the best teachers are the ones you work your tail off for because in the end you just don't want them to think any less of you. You want and need their approval. — Taylor Mali

No graduation speaker will ever tell you that the future is anything but uncertain. It never is. But graduations need not only be obsessed with looking ahead; a graduation can be a day on which we turn back and trace our steps to see how we ended up where we are. — Taylor Mali

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. — Taylor Mali

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 ... — Taylor Mali

Falling in love is like owning a dog. — Taylor Mali

The best teachers that I had were always the ones I never wanted to disappoint. — 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.' — Taylor Mali

It is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY. You have to speak with it, too. — Taylor Mali

And I want to tell her ... [that] changing your mind is one of the best ways of finding out whether or not you still have one. — Taylor Mali

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

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

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

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. — Taylor Mali

The memory is a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it gets. — Taylor Mali

You want to know what I make? I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional Medal of Honor and an A-minus feel like a slap in the face. — Taylor Mali

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

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. — Taylor Mali

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 — Taylor Mali

By the time these students enter the workforce, many of the jobs they will apply for ill be in industries that don't even exist yet. That's a hard future to prepare someone for. Teachers have their sights set on the real goal: not to produce Ivy League graduates, but to encourage the development of naturally curious, confident, flexible, and happy learners who are ready for whatever the future has in store. — Taylor Mali

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

Education is the miracle; I'm just the worker. — Taylor Mali

Suzy smiled and the whole class laughed at me, but when she spoke, I heard a new sound, not the song of an angel, but the words of a woman on a pedestal, coming down. — Taylor Mali

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. — Taylor Mali