Bel Kaufmanová: Quotes about school and education

Bel Kaufmanová was American novelist, teacher. Explore interesting quotes on school.
Bel Kaufmanová: 50 quotes0 likes

“Mythology is studied in the school system because most of us come from it.”

Bel Kaufmanová book Up the Down Staircase

Part III, ch. 19 (unnamed student)
Up the Down Staircase (1965)

“Frances Egan, the school nurse, left her nutrition charts long enough to tell me there was nothing that could have been done. "Evelyn had a rough time with her father," she said. "Once she came in beaten black and blue."
"What did you do for her?"
"I gave her a cup of tea."
"Tea? Why tea, for heaven's sake?"
"Why? Because I know all about it," she said, shaking with anger. "I know more than anyone here what goes on outside — poverty, disease, dope, degeneracy — yet I'm not supposed to give them even a band-aid. I used to plead, bang on my desk, talk myself hoarse arguing with kids, parents, welfare, administration, social agencies. Nobody really heard me. Now I give them tea. At least, that's something."
"But you're a nurse," I said helplessly.
She showed me the Directive from the Board posted on her wall: THE SCHOOL NURSE MAY NOT TOUCH WOUNDS, GIVE MEDICATION, REMOVE FOREIGN PARTICLES FROM THE EYE…
Are we, none of us, then, allowed to touch wounds? What is the teacher's responsibility? And if it begins at all, where does it end?”

Bel Kaufmanová book Up the Down Staircase

Part V, ch. 26 (Sylvia Barrett)
Up the Down Staircase (1965)

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

Bel Kaufmanová book Up the Down Staircase

Part X, ch. 49 (Sylvia Barrett)
Up the Down Staircase (1965)

“You teachers are all alike, dishing out crap and expecting us to swallow it and then give it back to you, nice and neat, with a place in it for the mark to go in. But you're even phonier than the others because you put on this act — being a dame you know how — and you stand there pretending that you give a damn. Who you kidding?
We're dirt to you, just like you're dirt to the fatheads and whistle-blowers who run this jail, and they're dirt to the swindlers and horn-tooters who run the school system.”

Bel Kaufmanová book Up the Down Staircase

Part II, ch. 12 (Joe Ferone)
Up the Down Staircase (1965)