What Teachers Make

What Teachers Make 

by: Taylor Mali

Mr. Christenberry was and is probably the oddest man I have ever met. He openly characterized himself from the first time I met him as a pessimistic and dirty old man. He was often rude, cynical, loud, and sarcastic, and he was never afraid to get in my face if I had something to say about it. He loved to talk and he loved to read almost as much as he loved to hear himself talk. He idolized Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, so I learned to think in ways I never had before. He showed me Crime and Punishment and Of Mice and Men, so I learned that pain and misery make us human and that we can find freedom in redemption. This man made me question my beliefs, he made me question who I was, and I think he was the first person to ever make me ask myself why I couldn't believe that I had the potential to become anything I wanted to be.

That man was my tenth-grade English teacher, and he changed me. I can safely say that what he taught me impacted me in a way that will affect me for the rest of my life.

But let's face it. Despite their worth in society, teacher's have never been known for living the life of luxury. A day in the life of a grade-school teacher is actually anything but easy. They have long hours, usually sacrificing their own time, energy, and money outside of school to make lesson plans, organize field trips, and travel to competitions. They have to be strong, sincere, and passionate leaders. They must be educational yet fun, unflinching yet caring, and they must discipline other people's terrible excuse for progeny, all while having to take on all the crap, disrespect, attitude, and untapped emotional baggage that children are capable of throwing at them. And they do all this for how much? Sadly, compared to other jobs, it isn't much at all.

But I loved Talyor Mali's poem, "What Teachers Make", because it shows quite vividly that teaching goes far beyond any starting salary. It's more than time and money and disrespect—somehow, teaching is not what you put into it. It's more.

As I listened to that poem, my life passed me by like a quiet dream, and I remembered everyone who ever taught me.
I saw the greatest men and women that ever lived—leaders and brothers, prophets and kings—and I saw their most beautiful and most terrible creations.
I saw those that taught them, inspired them, and helped them know parts of themselves that they never knew.
I saw Mr.Christenberry.
I saw my parents.
I saw me.
And I see now that the never-ending cycle of teaching and learning is how we become better (or worse) and change the world. This is why the value of a teacher is immeasurable, immeasurable because they build upon the truly infinite potential that lies within every individual. 

But it doesn't matter who you are or what you do. You don't have to be hired to inspire others to be everything that they have always dreamed of being. Whether you decide to teach in schools or not, I promise that you will have the opportunity to teach at some point in your life. Some of you will teach as parents, as colleagues, as family, or as friends, but at sometime you will be given that choice, and I beg that when that time comes, you take advantage of that opportunity so you will know, and forever understand, what teachers really make.
They make the world. Definitely beautiful. Definitely beautiful. Definitely beautiful.