If unconditional love and genuine enthusiasm are present, praise isn't necessary. If they're absent, praise won't help.

The value of a book about dealing with children is inversely proportional to the number of times it contains the word behavior.

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

Punishments erode relationships and moral growth.

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

Trying to do well and trying to beat others are two different things. Excellence and victory are conceptually distinct . . . and are experienced differently.

To control students is to force them to accommodate to a preestablished curriculum.