To focus on discipline is to ignore the real problem: We will never be able to get students (or anyone else) to be in good order if, day after day, we try to force them to do what they do not find satisfying.

When we depress, we believe we are the victims of a feeling over which we have no control.

Unlike the weak, the strong neither give up nor are driven by pain into rash or stupid behavior. They don't like pain any more than anyone else, but they are not willing to settle for short-term relief if it means reducing their options later. They don't rob Peter to pay Paul, they face reality now.

To be depressed or neurotic is passive. It happened to us; we are its victim, and we have no control over it.

Running a school where the students all succeed, even if some students have to help others to make the grade, is good preparation for democracy.

Today much of what we call education is merely knowledge gathering and remembering. Problem solving and thinking, never strong parts of our educational system, have been downgraded in all but a few scientific subjects.

We are driven by five genetic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.