Don’t have grades, for example:

you create a whole spectrum of larger and smaller objectives that help people take take ownership of their progress, and keep them feeling they are progressing and succeeding – as well as targeting particular sets of skills.

Don’t punish failure.

My answer was a resounding "no." I love technology as much as anyone, but ours is a Montessori school, and for attention training, Montessori students don't need computers. Montessori environments are specifically designed to train attention by providing children opportunities to practice deep concentration for long periods without disruption. According to Dr. Montessori, concentration development is "the most important single result of our whole work." This is why our preschool and elementary programs have 3-hour work cycles rather than a schedule that changes subject area every 30 to 40 minutes.

Education isn’t magic. Education is the wisdom wrung from failure.

those with a growth mindset, who believe that we can get better at almost anything, provided we invest the necessary time and energy

How America made its children crazy

The Waldorf movement diverges radically from the mainstream. It tends to recruit crunchy-granola rebels against urban civilization who love acoustical instruments and handicrafts, as well as philosophy graduates of major universities with a deep interest in metaphysics. Some of the classical curriculum of the German Gymnasium of a century ago is preserved as if in amber. And the fact that so many of the Masters of the Universe of the digital age send their children to this countercultural throwback is a fair gauge of the degradation of mainstream learning.

beginning in March,

There are already online degree courses, but the MIT proposal is unusual in that it is inviting students anywhere in the world, without charge or prior entrance requirements, to study for a certificate carrying the MIT brand.