Lisa Delpit Quotes

#1. There is no achievement gap at birth.

Lisa Delpit

#2. When one 'we' gets to determine standards for all 'we's' then some 'we's' are in trouble.

Lisa Delpit

#3. If the curriculum we use to teach our children does not connect in positive ways to the culture young people bring to school, it is doomed to failure.

Lisa Delpit

#4. Those with power are frequently least aware of
or least willing to acknowledge
its existence [and] those with less power are often most aware of its existence.

Lisa Delpit

#5. In order to teach you, I must know you.

Lisa Delpit

#6. A second reason African American students are not excelling is that we have all been affected by our society's deeply ingrained bias of equating blackness with inferiority.

Lisa Delpit

#7. Progressive white teachers seem to say to their black students 'Let me help you find your voice. I promise not to criticize one note as you search for your song'. But the black teachers say 'I've heard your song loud and clear. Now I want to teach you to harmonize with the rest of the world.

Lisa Delpit

#8. In other words, every human brain has the built-in capacity to become, over time, what we demand of it. No ability is fixed. Practice can even change the brain.

Lisa Delpit