Up the Down Staircase

by Bel Kaufman

The books we are required to teach frequently have nothing to do with anything except the fact that they have always been taught, or that there is an oversupply of them, or that some committee or other was asked to come up with some titles.

The cardinal sin, strange as it may seem in an institution of learning, is talking.

There is a premium on conformity, and on silence. Enthusiasm is frowned upon, since it is likely to be noisy.

Teachers try to make us feel lower than themselves, maybe this is because they feel lower than outside people.

I think the problem is not unreachable kids but unteachable teachers.

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.

Whatever the waste, stupidity, ineptitude, whatever the problems and frustrations of teachers and pupils, something very exciting is going on. In each of the classrooms, on each of the floors, all at the same time, education is going on. In some form or other, for all its abuses, young people are exposed to education.