Burro Genius Quotes

“The beginning of all wisdom is to understand that you don't know. To know is the enemy of all learning. To be sure is the enemy of wisdom.”
― Victor Villasenor, Burro Genius: A Memoir

“And I thanked mi papa who'd always said to me that we, los Indios, the Indians, were like the weeds. That roses you had to water and giver fertilizer or they'd die. But weeds, indigenous plants, you gave them nada-nothing; hell you even poisoned them and put concrete over them, and those weeds would still break the concrete, ”
― Victor Villaseñor, Burro Genius

“Because Spanish is a feeling-based language that comes first from the heart, just as English is a thinking-based language that comes first from the head.”
― Victor Villaseñor, Burro Genius

“Could it be we stifle our children's genius by languaging them too quickly away from their hearts and into the straight and narrow confines of linear thinking?”
― Victor Villaseñor, Burro Genius

“I know realized that this was how you enslaved a people. You didn't just bring them over in chains from Africa. No, you convinced them that they were inferior, not evolved, subhuman, and then you took off their shackles, so they could go to work, you'd still have them enslaved and shackled inside of their minds for hundreds of years. And this system of teaching was fine with most Anglo teachers, because int he act of convincing us, los Mexicanos and the Blacks, we were subhuman, they'd also convinced themselves that they were superior!”
― Victor Villasenor, Burro Genius: A Memoir

“Because, you see, real teaching isn’t just about teaching the brain up here,” I said, hitting my forehead, “but it’s also about inspiring your students to have heart…compassion, guts, understanding, and hope!”
― Victor Villaseñor, Burro Genius: A Memoir

“Papa always explained to me that there is no such thing as a kids’ game. That there are only games with which kids are learning the facts of life, but it’s the parents that are so tapados—so blind and constipated that they can’t see what these games are really all about.”
― Victor Villaseñor, Burro Genius: A Memoir

“teachers are no accident! You study to become a teacher! You work at it for years. So I cannot, and will not forgive teachers who are abusive, mean, and torture kids with commas and periods and misspelling, making them feel like they are less than human because they don’t or can’t seem to get it right.”
― Victor Villaseñor, Burro Genius: A Memoir

“That’s all we need, another drunk author.”
― Victor Villaseñor, Burro Genius: A Memoir

“That little purring began behind my left ear, traveling across the base of my head to my right ear. All around me, I began to see the whole word come to life with light and color. Once again it was another gorgeous day in Paraíso. Thank you, gracias.”
― Victor Villaseñor, Burro Genius

“I don’t care about periods or commas or misspellings at this time, even though this is English class. What I want to do is to get you so excited about reading and writing that the love of learning will be with you for the rest of your lives. I don’t want to hinder your natural joy of wanting to venture into a world of books and writing and wanting to learn.”
― Victor Villaseñor, Burro Genius: A Memoir

“Because, you see, a bad teacher, like Moses, the abusive English teacher that I had in Carlsbad, kills kids, here in the heart, and not just with their tests, but with their superior attitude and those sly smiles that they like to give to their A students, but never to the ones who are also working hard, or maybe even harder, like me, but just couldn’t get it!”
― Victor Villaseñor, Burro Genius: A Memoir