Right now, for instance, we resist giving people extra time on exams or for assignments, as though it's unfair to the faster students.

The whole idea of timing tests is a century old, from a scientist who thought speed and ability were tightly correlated, which they are not.

I care deeply about opportunity and fairness, because I grew up really poor.

I enrolled at a local college, but this time paid attention to myself - took only courses that really interested me, even if they weren't in sequence; kept out of classes with people I knew from high school, because I tended to act like the class clown around them; selected teachers by their teaching style - until I could build up my study habits. I ended up graduating with a 3.97 GPA and got into Harvard for my doctorate.

It's fine to pretend that people are one-dimensional, like in body size; the problem comes when you forget that you are just pretending.

We need to develop people rather than process them.

Growing up in rural Utah had a lot of benefits, but in an environment that prized conformity, fit wasn't one of them. I ended up in my senior year with a 0.9 GPA, which I think you actually have to work pretty hard to get. In the exact same month they kicked me out of school, my girlfriend - still my wife today - told me she was pregnant. So, it was an interesting start to life: working 10 or 12 minimum-wage jobs; getting bored really quickly and quitting; having my in-laws - rightly - in full panic mode and thinking I had some kind of character flaw.