To the young, cliches seem freshly minted.
BEL KAUFMANNever mind the cream; it will always rise to the top. It’s the skim milk that needs good teachers.
More Bel Kaufman Quotes
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Never mind the cream; it will always rise to the top. It’s the skim milk that needs good teachers.
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I suggest just Good and Bad at the end of the term on report cards. Or maybe nothing. Frank Allen
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Teachers try to make us feel lower than themselves, maybe because this is because they feel lower than outside people. One teacher told me to get out of the room and never come back, which I did.
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Mythology is studied in the school system because most of us come from it.
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I like the word OLD. Not senior, that’s for proms. Older? Older than whom? ‘Old’ is honorable and ripe
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Education is not a product: mark, diploma, job, money-in that order; it is a process, a never-ending one.
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Children are the true connoisseurs. What’s precious to them has no price, only value.
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Laughter keeps you healthy. You can survive by seeing the humor in everything. Thumb your nose at sadness; turn the tables on tragedy.
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I am writing this during my lunch period, because I need to reach towards the outside world of sanity, because I am overwhelmed by the sheer weight of the clerical work still to be done, and because at this hour of the morning normal ladies are still sleeping.
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“Language Arts Dept.” is the English office; “literature based on child’s reading level and experiential background” means that’s all they’ve got in the Book Room; “non-academic-minded” is a delinquent; and “It has come to my attention” means you’re in trouble.
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I’ll never retire as long as I live—that’s like retiring from life! I’ll never stop writing, teaching, lecturing. If you’re in good health, living is exciting on its own.
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And that’s it; that’s why I want to teach; that’s the one and only compensation: to make a permanent difference in the life of a child.
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You can’t laugh and be angry, you can’t laugh and feel sad, you can’t laugh and feel envious.
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I feel no different than I felt at 99, 98 or 97. Just because you live a long time, you get all this attention. Just because you survived? Of course, I survived a lot.
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A teacher is frequently the only adult in the pupil’s environment who treats him with respect.
BEL KAUFMAN