No human being will work hard at anything unless they believe that they are working for competence.

If you improve education by teaching for competence, eliminating schooling, and connecting with students, the test scores will improve.

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.

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.

There is no real reason to fail a child," "Once children start failing, they begin to believe that they can't do anything. They give up.

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.