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.
BEL KAUFMANLearning is a process of mutual discovery for teacher and pupil. Keep an open mind to their unexpected responses.
More Bel Kaufman Quotes
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The heart has its reasons; it’s the mind that’s suspect.
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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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Learning is a process of mutual discovery for teacher and pupil. Keep an open mind to their unexpected responses.
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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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… good teachers, like Tolstoy’s happy families, are alike everywhere.
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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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A teacher is frequently the only adult in the pupil’s environment who treats him with respect.
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Children are the true connoisseurs. What’s precious to them has no price, only value.
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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 like the word OLD. Not senior, that’s for proms. Older? Older than whom? ‘Old’ is honorable and ripe
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People ate bread made of the shells of peas because there was no flour.
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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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“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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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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To the young, cliches seem freshly minted.
BEL KAUFMAN