This past weekend Saturday Night Live ran a really funny sketch called “Mr. H” starring James McAvoy, and it began with a quotation from my poem “What Teachers Make.” And they even used my name! I had no idea that this would happen in advance, nor do I have any idea how they came to decide that the skit would be improved by an epigraph.
Actually, since the whole premise of the skit is to turn on its head the cliché of the white teacher doing inspiring work in the ghetto school, I suppose starting with a line from an inspiring poem about the nobility of teaching helps to lead the audience in the wrong direction. But they could have used any one of a hundred other quotes about teaching and education! It’s a very funny sketch and I am honored to have my name tied to it now forever on YouTube.
Dear Mr. Mali,
Which book contains “The Jumpers”? I heard you read it at the AP English Literature exam reading, and I want to buy the right book to teach with my students who are studying 9/11 literature.
(These guys are one of the first groups to have zero memory of the event, which scares me.)
Cool about SNL!! Thanks for all you do to inspire all of us in the classroom.
Thanks,
Brenda BK