Through books and photographs, I saw a world that was not my own - and I realized that there was another world. That's why I'm concerned about education, because it helps our children see other worlds.
Interpretation
Education opens our minds to new perspectives and experiences beyond our own.
Bette Midler emphasizes the transformative power of education, which allows individuals, especially children, to explore and understand worlds beyond their immediate surroundings. Through books and photographs, she discovered diverse experiences and realities, motivating her advocacy for educational opportunities that broaden our horizons.
In practice
In a speech about community development, I shared this quote to emphasize the importance of educational resources for children.
I believe that Judy Garland's artistry was so fine. I mean, when people say: 'oh, she brought so much of her life to her music', I don't really believe that. I believe that she didn't have to. She just was a moving human being. That was her gift.
Group conformity scares the pants off me because it's so often a prelude to cruelty towards anyone who doesn't want to - or can't - join the Big Parade.
When I moved to New York City in 1965, I wanted to be in theater. I was following my Ethel Barrymore dream. But I was too young to be Ethel.
Some say love, it is a razor that leaves your soul to bleed.
Twenty-seven people sang 'Wind Beneath My Wings' before I got around to it. A lot of people saw the movie that I sang it in, Beaches, and what they came away with was that song. They turned to their loved ones and said, 'You know, you are the wind beneath my wings!' The song expressed how they felt in a way a simple 'I love you' would not have.
I wish America would spend even half as much time complaining about plastics in our oceans as we do about actresses' plastic surgery.
Ask me my three main priorities for government, and I tell you: education, education and education.
The primary goal in the education of children is to teach, and to give the example of, a virtuous life.
When I think how art education is eliminated whenever we get a budget crunch in the schools, I have to stand up and say that even when there was dire poverty ten blocks away from Tiffany Studios in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, there was art and creativity within.
A cookbook must have recipes, but it shouldn't be a blueprint. It should be more inspirational; it should be a guide.
Children don't need much advice but they really do need to be listened to and not just with half an ear.
When I was 17, I worked in a mentoring program in Harlem designed to improve the community. That's when I first gained an appreciation of the Harlem Renaissance, a time when African-Americans rose to prominence in American culture. For the first time, they were taken seriously as artists, musicians, writers, athletes, and as political thinkers.
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