Progress Pond

What Teachers Make

The movie was good…but not as good as the book.

Well, Taylor Mali’s What Teachers Make: In Praise Of The Greatest Job In The World is good…but not as good as the poem.  (Yes, go watch the performance; it’s worth it.  I’ll wait here.)

Back already?  Well, now you know why I say that this book not being as good as that poem is not an insult*.  In fact, the book is excellent—a tightly packed, engaging, and powerful argument in defense of teachers and the work they do.

Mali speaks from experience.  He spent nine years as a classroom teacher in a variety of settings and several of his best poems draw from that experience.  Some, like I’ll Fight You For The Library: A Poem In Four Letters and Tony Steinberg: Brave Seventh-Grade Viking Warrior, are included in the book and enriched by the background details Mali provides here.

Crossposted at: http://masscommons.wordpress.com/

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