Grades dilute the pleasure that a student experiences on successfully completing a task.

We have so much to cover and so little time to cover it. Howard Gardner refers to curriculum coverage as the single greatest enemy of understanding. Think instead about ideas to be discovered.

Assessments should compare the performance of students to a set of expectations, never to the performance of other students.

Very few things are as dangerous as a bunch of incentive-driven individuals trying to play it safe.

The legendary statistical consultant W. Edwards Deming, . . . has called the system by which merit is appraised and rewarded 'the most powerful inhibitor to quality and productivity in the Western world' . . . it is simply unfair to the extent that employees are held responsible for what are, in reality, systemic factors that are beyond their control.

Punishments and rewards are two sides of the same coin and that coin doesn't buy you much.

Being a team player should not imply a demand for simple obedience and conformity.