black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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.

Bel Kaufman

“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.
BEL KAUFMAN

Cops Fight Relationship Stuck
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.
BEL KAUFMAN

Broken Reading School
Love is the ultimate giving, an expression of one’s best self.
BEL KAUFMAN

Expression Love Self
One of my students had written wistfully of a dream-school that would have “windows with trees in them.
BEL KAUFMAN

Dream School Tree
The heart has its reasons; it’s the mind that’s suspect.
BEL KAUFMAN

Heart Mind Reason
To the young, cliches seem freshly minted.
BEL KAUFMAN

Cliche Language Young
Time collapses and expands like an erratic accordion.
BEL KAUFMAN

Collapse Erratic Time
Mythology is studied in the school system because most of us come from it.
BEL KAUFMAN

Mythology School System
To 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.
BEL KAUFMAN

Morning Mother Summer
Education can’t make us all leaders, but it can teach us which leader to follow.
BEL KAUFMAN

Knowledge Leader School
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!
BEL KAUFMAN

Listening Looks Teacher
I had used my sense of humor; I had called it proportion, perspective. But perspective is distance.
BEL KAUFMAN

Distance Perspective Sense Of Humor
Children are the true connoisseurs. What’s precious to them has no price, only value.
BEL KAUFMAN

Children Connoisseurs Value
The clerical work is par for the course. “Keep on file in numerical order” means throw in wastebasket. You’ll soon learn the language.
BEL KAUFMAN

Art Children Reading
“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.
BEL KAUFMAN

Book Experimental Level Mindset
… good teachers, like Tolstoy’s happy families, are alike everywhere.
BEL KAUFMAN

Good Teacher Teaching

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Bel Kaufman Quotes