One of my students had written wistfully of a dream-school that would have “windows with trees in them.
BEL KAUFMANThe preciousness of every moment is emphasized with every tick of the clock. Isn’t it a magnificent day today?
More Bel Kaufman Quotes
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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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To the young, cliches seem freshly minted.
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Time collapses and expands like an erratic accordion.
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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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Best marks go to cheaters and memorizers. Marks depend on memorizing and not on real knowledge. When you cram into your head for a test you may get a high mark but forget it the next day. That’s not an education.
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My mother, for example, has the pleasant notion that my day consists of nodding graciously to the rustle of starched curtsies and a chorus of respectful voices bidding me good morning.
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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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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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Love is the ultimate giving, an expression of one’s best self.
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If a teacher wants to know something why doesn’t she look it up herself instead of making we students do it? We benefit ourselves more by listening to her, after all she’s the teacher!
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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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People ate bread made of the shells of peas because there was no flour.
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The clerical work is par for the course. “Keep on file in numerical order” means throw in wastebasket. You’ll soon learn the language.
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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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Learning is a process of mutual discovery for teacher and pupil. Keep an open mind to their unexpected responses.
BEL KAUFMAN







