Bel Kaufman Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• 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.

  Bel Kaufman

  Teacher, People, Trying

  Bel Kaufman (2012). “Up the Down Staircase”, p.116, Open Road Media

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• But if there is such a thing as social commitment in literature, I think it must manifest itself in a reader's awareness of the human condition, in the writer's touching some common nerve ending. I think this kind of social commitment, like a lady's slip, should be there but it must not show.

  Bel Kaufman

  Commitment, Thinking, Touching

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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.

  Bel Kaufman

  Morning, Sleep, Writing

  Bel Kaufman (2012). “Up the Down Staircase”, p.72, Open Road Media

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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. "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; "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

  Art, Children, Reading

  Bel Kaufman (2012). “Up the Down Staircase”, p.49, Open Road Media

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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

  Inspiring, Long, Different

  "At 100, Still a Teacher, and Quite a Character" by Joseph Berger, www.nytimes.com. May 11, 2011.

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• ... good teachers, like Tolstoy's happy families, are alike everywhere.

  Bel Kaufman

  Teacher, Teaching, Good Teacher

  Bel Kaufman (2012). “Up the Down Staircase”, p.25, Open Road Media

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