To the young, cliches seem freshly minted.
BEL KAUFMANMy 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.
More Bel Kaufman Quotes
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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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Love is the ultimate giving, an expression of one’s best self.
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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 had used my sense of humor; I had called it proportion, perspective. But perspective is distance.
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One of my students had written wistfully of a dream-school that would have “windows with trees in them.
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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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“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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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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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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Never mind the cream; it will always rise to the top. It’s the skim milk that needs good teachers.
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Children are the true connoisseurs. What’s precious to them has no price, only value.
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Mythology is studied in the school system because most of us come from it.
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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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“Let it be a challenge to you” means you’re stuck with it; “interpersonal relationships” is a fight between kids; “ancillary civic agencies for supportive discipline” means call the cops.
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When giving comes directly from the heart, it can never disappoint or embarrass.
BEL KAUFMAN