My Teachers 

“What if we sought to develop a culture of thinking in our schools, classrooms, museums, meetings, and organizations?”

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“Abolitionist teaching is not a teaching approach: it is a way of life, a way of seeing the world, and a way of taking action against injustice.” (Ch.5 pg.89)

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“...antiracist pedagogy combined with grassroots organizing can prepare students and their families to demand the impossible in the fight for eradicating these persistent and structural barriers. Pedagogy should work in tandem with students’ own knowledge of the community and grassroots organizations to push forward new ideas for social change, not just be a tool to enhance test scores or grades. Pedagogy, regardless of its name, is useless without teachers dedicated to challenging systemic oppression with intersectional social justice.” (pg 18)

“One of the goals of education is not simply to fill students with facts and information but to help them learn how to learn.”

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​“The old adage we usually hear is that “practice makes perfect.” Based on what we know about neuroplasticity and deliberate practice, we should rephrase that to read, “practice makes permanent.” As you organize yourself for this self-reflective prep work, remember that it is not about being perfect but about creating new neural pathways that shift your default cultural programming as you grow in awareness and skill.”

“It’s hard for children to change their behavior when their feelings are completely ignored.”

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“The plain fact is that when students are upset, they can’t concentrate. And they certainly can’t absorb new material. It we want to free their minds to think and learn then we have to deal respectfully with their emotions.”

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"When we invite a child to join us in tackling a problem, we send a powerful set of messages:
a. “I believe in you”
b. “I trust your ability to think wisely and creatively”
c. “I value your contribution”
d. “I see our relationship not as ‘all powerful grown-up’ exercising authority over ‘ignorant child’ but as adult and child who are equal, not in competence, not in experience, but in equal dignity”.

Currently reading 

 

“Being able to feel safe with other people is probably the single most important aspect of mental health; safe connections are fundamental to meaningful and satisfying lives.”

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“We have learned that trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain, and body. This imprint has ongoing consequences for how the human organism manages to survive in the present. Trauma results in a fundamental reorganization of the way mind and brain manage perceptions. It changes not only how we think and what we think about, but also our very capacity to think.”

“An education is not so much about making a living as making a person.”

 

“My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.”

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“The skill I was learning was a crucial one, the patience to read things I could not yet understand.”