We learn most readily, most naturally, most effectively, when we start with the big picture - precisely when the basics don't come first.

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

We can't value only what is easy to measure; measurable outcomes may be the least important results of learning.

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 difference between a good educator and a great educator is that the former figures out how to work within the constraints of traditional policies and accepted assumptions, whereas the latter figures out how to change whatever gets in the way of doing right by kids. 'But we've always...', 'But the parents will never...', 'But we can't be the only school in the area to...' - all such protestations are unpersuasive to great educators. If research and common sense argue for doing things differently, then the question isn't whether to change course but how to make it happen.

Whoever said there's no such thing as a stupid question never looked carefully at a standardized test.

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