Bel Kaufman Quotes

 "Education is not a product: mark, diploma, job, money-in that order; it is a process, a never-ending one." ~ Bel Kaufman

 "Children are the true connoisseurs. What’s precious to them has no price, only value." ~ Bel Kaufman

 "Education can't make us all leaders, but it can teach us which leader to follow." ~ Bel Kaufman

 "The heart has its reasons; it's the mind that's suspect." ~ Bel Kaufman

 "Learning is a process of mutual discovery for teacher and pupil. Keep an open mind to their unexpected responses." ~ Bel Kaufman

 "Never mind the cream; it will always rise to the top. It's the skim milk that needs good teachers." ~ Bel Kaufman

 "Love is the ultimate giving, an expression of one's best self." ~ Bel Kaufman

 "I had used my sense of humor; I had called it proportion, perspective. But perspective is distance." ~ Bel Kaufman

 "The preciousness of every moment is emphasized with every tick of the clock. Isn't it a magnificent day today?" ~ Bel Kaufman

 "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

 "Time collapses and expands like an erratic accordion." ~ Bel Kaufman

 "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

 "I’ll never retire as long as I live—that’s like retiring from life! I’ll never stop writing, teaching, lecturing. If you’re in good health, living is exciting on its own." ~ Bel Kaufman

 "People ate bread made of the shells of peas because there was no flour." ~ Bel Kaufman

 "When giving comes directly from the heart, it can never disappoint or embarrass." ~ Bel Kaufman

 "To the young, cliches seem freshly minted." ~ Bel Kaufman

 "A teacher is frequently the only adult in the pupil's environment who treats him with respect." ~ Bel Kaufman

 "Mythology is studied in the school system because most of us come from it." ~ Bel Kaufman

 "I like the word OLD. Not senior, that's for proms. Older? Older than whom? 'Old' is honorable and ripe" ~ Bel Kaufman

 "One of my students had written wistfully of a dream-school that would have "windows with trees in them." ~ Bel Kaufman

 "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

 "... good teachers, like Tolstoy's happy families, are alike everywhere." ~ Bel Kaufman