A first class system of early childhood education is the hallmark of a caring and civilized society.

On being: Arrogance is not the prerogative of the gifted.

Human growth is not like rhubarb. It can be nurtured and encouraged but it cannot be forced.

If we're all on the same page, no one's reading the whole book.

Culture is the possibility and impossibility that bacon and fruit can appear on the same plate.

We need standards with flexibility, not standardization with force if we are to get the best from our teachers.

There is a new science of complexity which says that the link between cause and effect is increasingly difficult to trace; that change (planned or otherwise) unfolds in non-linear ways; that paradoxes and contradictions abound; and that creative solutions arise out of diversity, uncertainty and chaos.