Education is not a product: mark, diploma, job, money-in that order; it is a process, a never-ending one.
BEL KAUFMANA teacher is frequently the only adult in the pupil’s environment who treats him with respect.
More Bel Kaufman Quotes
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When giving comes directly from the heart, it can never disappoint or embarrass.
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Children are the true connoisseurs. What’s precious to them has no price, only value.
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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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People ate bread made of the shells of peas because there was no flour.
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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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Time collapses and expands like an erratic accordion.
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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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… good teachers, like Tolstoy’s happy families, are alike everywhere.
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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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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 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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I so enjoy being old because for the first time I don’t have to do anything-work, teach, study. I feel very good about myself-and at my age I can say no to anything now if I don’t want to do it. What a liberating word.
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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.
BEL KAUFMAN