One of my students had written wistfully of a dream-school that would have “windows with trees in them.
BEL KAUFMANTo the outside world, of course, this job is a cinch: 9 to 3, five days a week, two months’ summer vacation with pay, all legal holidays, prestige and respect.
More Bel Kaufman Quotes
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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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“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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… good teachers, like Tolstoy’s happy families, are alike everywhere.
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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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A teacher is frequently the only adult in the pupil’s environment who treats him with respect.
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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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Learning is a process of mutual discovery for teacher and pupil. Keep an open mind to their unexpected responses.
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People ate bread made of the shells of peas because there was no flour.
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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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The preciousness of every moment is emphasized with every tick of the clock. Isn’t it a magnificent day today?
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Love is the ultimate giving, an expression of one’s best self.
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I want to point the way to something that should forever lure them, when the TV set is broken and the movie is over and the school bell has rung for the last time.
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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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To the young, cliches seem freshly minted.
BEL KAUFMAN