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.
I grew up hearing stories about my grandmother - my mother's mother - who used to go to villages in India in her little VW bug. My grandmother would take a bullhorn and make sure women in these villages knew how to access birth control.
There is no remedy so easy as books, which if they do not give cheerfulness, at least restore quiet to the most troubled mind.
Teachers teach because they care. Teaching young people is what they do best. It requires long hours, patience, and care.
Read widely, and without apology. Read what you want to read, not what someone tells you you should read.
It is so fatally easy to make young children believe that they are horrible.
Children are not simply commodities to be herded into line and trained for the jobs that white people who live in segregated neighborhoods have available.
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