When it comes to incorporating humor in literary form, Taylor Mali is an expert. He is a Brooklyn-based artist and educator who has taught spoken word workshops all over the world since 2000. He has performed and taught poetry in over 50 foreign counties and every state of the United States, except Wyoming. His poetry is often hysterically funny, sentimental, and accessible and he is an advocate of teachers and the nobility of teaching.
Taylor Mali is the author of What Learning Leaves (2002), The Last Time As We Are (2009), and What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World ( 2012). His most recent works are The Whetting Stone (2017) and Bouquet of Red Flags (2014). Here are 10 memorable quotes by Taylor Mali about teaching.
1.
“Teachers shouldn’t make the mistake of always thinking they’re the smartest person in the room.”
— Taylor Mali
2.
“Great teachers will never be able to make up for bad parents, nor should they be expected to.”
— Taylor Mali
3.
“The only thing that suprisez 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
4.
“Education is the miracle; I’m just the worker.”
— Taylor Mali
5.
“Read to your children all of the time/ Novels and nursery rhymes/ Autobiographies, even the newspaper/ It doesn’t matter; 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
6.
“By the time these students enter the workforce, many of the jobs they will apply for will 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
7.
“That’s what teaching is, the art of exploration: presenting the right information in the right order in a memorable way.”
— Taylor Mali
8.
“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
9.
“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
10.
“It is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY. You have to speak with it, too.”
— Taylor Mali
For more information on Taylor Mali go to Bookstr.