Maximum difficulty isn't the same as optimal difficulty.

Educators remind us that what counts in a classroom is not what the teacher teaches; it’s what the learner learns.

How can we do our best when we are spending our energies trying to make others lose - and fearing that they will make us lose?

In some suburban schools, the curriculum is chock-full of rigorous A.P. courses and the parking lot glitters with pricey SUVs, but one doesn't have to look hard to find students who are starving themselves, cutting themselves, or medicating themselves, as well students who are taking out their frustrations on those who sit lower on the social food chain.

Most of us would protest that of course we love our children without any strings attached. But what counts is how things look from the perspective of the children

Independence is useful, but caring attitudes and behaviors shrivel up in a culture where each person is responsible only for himself.

Do rewards motivate people? Absolutely. They motivate people to get rewards.