Quote #21

Paul asks how I would have handled a love letter from a student. I don't know - by talking, maybe, by listening. I don't know. How sad that we don't hear each other - any of us. Major issues are submerged by minor ones; catastrophes by absurdities.

More from Bel Kaufman

  1. Being a female, she spurns him on.
  2. 'Why did you fail me? I didn't do nothing!' The reply, of course, is: 'That's just it.'
  3. A teacher is frequently the only adult in the pupil's environment who treats him with respect.
  4. One of my students had written wistfully of a dream-school that would have 'windows with trees in them.'
  5. When I tried to tell McHabe that it would have been more valuable to let Ferone keep his appointment with me than to kick him out, he let m…
  6. My words never reached him; I could almost hear them drop, one by one, like so many pebbles against a closed window.
  7. With me they get a solid foundation, the disciplines of learning. In my class they don't get away with hot air discussions and exchanging t…
  8. I had used my sense of humor; I had called it proportion, perspective. But perspective is distance.

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