What Teachers Make

 

In the poem “What Teachers Make” Taylor Mali talks about how important teachers are for a society and that they deserve more recognition. One night he has dinner with guests and gets mocked by his guests for being a teacher. Instead of starting and argument with them and ruin the dinner he “resist[s] the temptation to remind the dinner guests that it’s also true  what they say about lawyers.”  Then he gets asked “what do [es] [he] make?” He tells his guests how much difference he makes because he “make [s] kids work harder than they ever thought they could.” He goes on to describe a 40 minute study hall lesson in which they have to work in “absolute silence”. Parents tremble when he calls home at around dinner time just to find out that their son had actually done something good for once and reliefs them. He makes them question and criticize everything so that they will be able to have their own opinion and judging skills when they grow up. He ends the argument with saying that “teachers make a goddamn difference! Now what about you?” I like the way he uses parallel structure when he always says “You wanna know what I make?” or “I make them” it makes it easier to memorize what he is talking about and this way he keeps the audience in the palm of his hand.