When I had asked why they were taking English, a boy said: "To help us in real life." - Bel Kaufman

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 me have it:
"When you're in the system as long as I," he said (They all say that!) "you'll realize it isn't understanding they need. I understand them all right — they're no good."

I had used my sense of humor; I had called it proportion, perspective. But perspective is distance.

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