When all is said and done we simply must make teaching in this country an honorable profession-since it's in the classrooms of America where the battle for excellence, ultimately, will be won or lost.

To put it simply, school readiness means creating in this country a public love of children.

To push for excellence today without continuing to push for access for less privileged students is to undermine the crucial but incomplete gains that have been made. Equity and excellence cannot be divided.

When all is said and done we simply must make teaching in this country an honorable profession-since it's in the classrooms of America where the battle for excellence, ultimately, will be won or lost.

The connectedness of things is what the great university is all about, and I believe the great university in the coming century will be described as a community of scholars.

Music gives us a language that cuts across the disciplines, helps us to see connections and brings a more coherent meaning to our world.

An incompetent teacher is even worse than an incompetent surgeon because a surgeon can only cut up one person at a time.