Don't let anyone tell you that standardized tests are not accurate measures. The truth of the matter is they offer a remarkably precise method for gauging the size of the houses near the school where the test was administered.

Punishments erode relationships and moral growth.

If children feel safe, they can take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, learn to trust, share their feelings, and grow.

To be well-educated is to have the desire as well as the means to make sure that learning never ends.

Children, after all, are not just adults-in-the-making. They are people whose current needs and rights and experiences must be taken seriously.

You have to give them unconditional love. They need to know that even if they screw up, you love them. You don't want them to grow up and resent you or, even worse, parent the way you parented them.

The race to win turns us all into losers.