Bel Kaufmanová: Quotes about teachers

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

“A teacher is frequently the only adult in the pupil's environment who treats him with respect.”

Bel Kaufmanová book Up the Down Staircase

Part VI, ch. 29 (Samuel Bester)
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)

“I don't allow anyone to talk to me like that.
So you're lucky — you're a teacher.”

Bel Kaufmanová book Up the Down Staircase

Part I, ch. 1 (Sylvia Barrett and Joe Ferone)
Up the Down Staircase (1965)

“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 Kaufmanová book Up the Down Staircase

Part IV, ch. 24 (unnamed student)
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)

“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 Kaufmanová book Up the Down Staircase

Part II, ch. 10 (Jerry "Cutter" Hyams)
Up the Down Staircase (1965)

“Like most chairmen, he teaches only one class of Seniors; the most experienced teachers are frequently promoted right out of the classroom!”

Bel Kaufmanová book Up the Down Staircase

Part II, ch. 9 (Sylvia Barrett)
Up the Down Staircase (1965)