19 pages • 38-minute read
What Teachers Make
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Themes
Teaching
The main theme of “What Teachers Make” is teaching and education. This theme grounds the poem in its narrative, setting the opening scene in which the speaker is at a dinner party when one of the guests starts to talk about “the problem with teachers” (Line 1) and finally turns to the speaker — a teacher — and asks what they make, referring to their income. As a central theme to the poem, Mali emphasizes that education isn’t just about what kids learn in textbooks or classrooms; it isn’t solely about subject matter (English, math, and science). The type of education that teachers provide is education concerning life. Many lines in “What Teachers Make” emphasize this. For instance, “I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could” (Line 18) indicates that Mali teaches kids how to believe in themselves, test boundaries, and persevere even when they feel they can’t go any farther. Similarly, the line “I make parents see their children for who they are / and what they can be” (Lines 36-37) illustrates education beyond the classroom, educating parents to understand their children and celebrate their gifts, all while believing in what they can achieve.
Education in “What Teachers Make” goes far beyond curriculum and test scores. Instead, it is about learning how to dream and “wonder” (Line 38), “question” (Line 39), “criticize” (Line 40), and “apologize” (Line 41). Mali celebrates how teachers teach students to be respectable, responsible citizens, giving them the skills to enter the world. As he notes in his essay collection, “When I’m teaching kids to work harder than they ever thought they could? That is what they will need every day of their lives” (Mali, Taylor. What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World. Berkeley, 2013, p. 12).
Honesty
The themes of honesty and truth sit at the crux of Mali’s “What Teachers Make.” Introduced in Line 13 when the vocal dinner guest says, “Be honest. What do you make?” addressing the speaker, who is a teacher, and indicating their worth, the term “honest” acts as a trigger for the speaker who states in the following line, “And I wish he hadn’t done that — asked me to be honest” (Line 14). The concept of honesty rocks the speaker who, up until that point, had tried to disregard the dinner guest (“I decided to bite my tongue instead of his / and resist the temptation” [Lines 8-9]), the temptation being to point out the truths of other professions, like lawyers). The speaker, however, is provoked and must respond (as indicated by Line 15-16: “because, you see, I have this policy about honesty and ass-kicking: / if you ask for it, then I have to let you have it” [Lines 15-16]).
Honesty and truth are the catalyst propelling the rest of the poem, which is the speaker’s argument or answer to the “He” in Line 1. The speaker never once mentions a monetary figure or income; instead, what they “make” is abstract, complex, and nuanced. Because the dinner guest asks the speaker to be honest, the speaker is released from all previous cordiality and social norms (indicated by the line, “Because we’re eating, after all, and this is polite conversation” [Line 11]). The speaker’s honesty becomes a soliloquy in praise of education and educators. Through the theme of honesty, Mali argues the truth that a teacher’s worth is not determined by a sum of money; instead, it is determined by the success of their students, with “success” extending beyond educational outcomes to “success” as responsible, kind, disciplined, and truthful human beings.
Worth
Mali’s “What Teachers Make” engages the theme of worth. Opening with the dinner guest’s presumptuous comments about teachers (“Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach” [Line 7]), the poem sets the scene for the theme of worth and value. While it’s unclear what the profession of the “He” (Line 1) is, Line 10 hints that they may be a lawyer. In modern society, success is often defined linearly in terms of income (indicated by the question posed in Line 13) and upward mobility. Mali’s speaker refuses to be boxed in by this definition. When asked how much they make, the speaker does not answer with a monetary figure, but rather with specific examples of what they make children learn, how they make parents see their kids in new ways, and how they make children into worthy adults.
The concept of worth returns in the penultimate stanza when Mali states the following:
I make them understand that if you’ve got this,
then you follow this,
and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this (Lines 49-52).
While saying the words in Line 40, Mali points to his head, indicating his brain or mind; while saying Line 50, Mali points to his chest, indicating his heart; and while saying Line 52, he holds up his middle finger, indicating that those who judge your worth by the amount of money you make are not worth your time. This final point returns to the rich dinner guest in Stanza 1. Mali directly references this person to close the poem and further prove his point: that worth is not determined by how much you make, but by the impact you have.
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