Well, my father's people were Mormon, and had immigrated not long after Brigham Young had settled Utah.

Dogs don't bark at parked cars.

Well, my father's people were Mormon, and had immigrated not long after Brigham Young had settled Utah.

You know, my mother had a rule which was people are just people.

Expecting to be able to get rid of the competitive drive, first of all, flies in the face of human nature - and little girls certainly have this drive, as much as little boys do, or at least the little girls I have observed in my immediate family have it.

Well, part of it is a longstanding belief - it's been in our education establishment at least since the 1930s - that somehow children should be allowed to discover knowledge for themselves, that they should construct their own knowledge. This has surfaced most recently in connection with mathematics instruction, where the idea is that they need to discover how to add for themselves. Rather than being taught how to add, they should construct this knowledge on their own.

There can be differences of opinion without there being personal differences.