Let's stop teaching to the middle and start teaching to the student.

Build an organization that can tackle the tough things and keep moving.

I want to be a children’s hero… Children need heroes because heroes give hope; without hope they have no future.

Many schools today are sacrificing social studies, the arts and physical education so children can cover basic subjects like math, English and science.

I graduated from Bowdoin College and went to the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Then I left and took a job teaching really poor inner-city white kids in Boston. It was interesting to me because I'd never been around poor whites before.

When kids know that you refuse to let them fail ... they don't give up as easy. So sometimes they don't have it inside, [but] they're like,'You know, I don't want to do this, but I know my mother's going to be mad.'That matters to kids, and it helps get them through.

Osama Bin Laden is not going to come here and destroy America. Our education system is doing that just fine.