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  "title": "Up the Down Staircase",
  "slug": "up-the-down-staircase",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase.md",
  "author": {
    "name": "Bel Kaufman",
    "slug": "bel-kaufman",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman"
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  "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/vintage/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase_978-05-2556-565-9.jpg",
  "quotes_count": 11,
  "quotes": [
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      "slug": "a-teacher-is-frequently",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase/a-teacher-is-frequently",
      "text": "A teacher is frequently the only adult in the pupil's environment who treats him with respect.",
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    {
      "id": "dc462775-01ea-4175-9e04-30056316b504",
      "slug": "my-words-never",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase/my-words-never",
      "text": "My words never reached him; I could almost hear them drop, one by one, like so many pebbles against a closed window.",
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      "chapter": null,
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    {
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      "slug": "with-me-they",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase/with-me-they",
      "text": "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 their opinions and describing their experiences. What opinions can they have? What have they experienced? What do they know? That's an affront! They learn what I know.",
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      "slug": "paul-asks-how",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase/paul-asks-how",
      "text": "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.\n\nHow sad that we don't hear each other — any of us.\n\nMajor issues are submerged by minor ones; catastrophes by absurdities.",
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      "slug": "why-did-you",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase/why-did-you",
      "text": "\"Why did you fail me? I didn't do nothing!\" The reply, of course, is: \"That's just it.\"",
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    {
      "id": "21d9072f-1ecb-476d-b220-c5a59ce25780",
      "slug": "i-had-used",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase/i-had-used",
      "text": "I had used my sense of humor; I had called it proportion, perspective. But perspective is distance.",
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      "slug": "the-clerical-work",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase/the-clerical-work",
      "text": "The clerical work is par for the course. \"Keep on file in numerical order\" means throw in wastebasket. You'll soon learn the language. \"Let it be a challenge to you\" means you're stuck with it; \"interpersonal relationships\" is a fight between kids; \"ancillary civic agencies for supportive discipline\" means call the cops; \"Language Arts Dept.\" is the English office; \"literature based on child's reading level and experiential background\" means that's all they've got in the Book Room; \"non-academic-minded\" is a delinquent; and \"It has come to my attention\" means you're in trouble.",
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      "id": "b2b26736-a083-43d9-8bda-9645f044c39f",
      "slug": "mythology-is-studied",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase/mythology-is-studied",
      "text": "Mythology is studied in the school system because most of us come from it.",
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    {
      "id": "a79bcf09-84e5-4f2e-8cdc-2aaac26b4716",
      "slug": "the-ceiling-fell",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase/the-ceiling-fell",
      "text": "The ceiling fell? The ink ran dry? A student dared to smile?\n\nOf every new disaster\n\nI prove myself the master\n\nBy sending out more circulars, more circulars to file!\n\nA missing kid? A kissing kid? A paper on the floor?\n\nFor every major crisis\n\nOne remedy suffices:\n\nMore circulars, more circulars, to put into a drawer!A crowded cafeteria?\n\nA substitute's hysteria?\n\nA visitor from Syria?\n\nA missing Book Receipt?I merely send out circulars\n\nTo add to other circulars\n\nTo add to other circulars\n\nNumerical and neat!",
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      "id": "53208ac1-5524-4a41-a0ab-9cc62d52ebe4",
      "slug": "teachers-try-to-make",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase/teachers-try-to-make",
      "text": "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.",
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      "slug": "like-most-chairmen",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase/like-most-chairmen",
      "text": "Like most chairmen, he teaches only one class of Seniors; the most experienced teachers are frequently promoted right out of the classroom!",
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