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Overall, college education seems a matter of mastering a complex body of knowledge for a very short time only to rather soon forget everything

I’ve concluded that the goal of most college courses should not be knowledge but engaging in certain intellectual exercises.

We should judge teaching not by the amount of knowledge it passes on, but by the enduring excitement it generates. Knowledge, when it comes, is a later arrival, flaring up, when the time is right, from the sparks good teachers have implanted in their students’ souls.

It may seem counter intuitive, but the word “think” is something that should only rarely be used in a classroom. The reason: students don’t know how to think, and you can’t teach them to do it!

My suggestion: Don’t say think, say what you mean!

So next time someone asks you if students think in your class you can respond with, “Of course not! They are too busy questioning, describing, analysing, judging, hypothesising, predicting, generating, using their 6 Hats, performing PMI’s, drawing mindmaps and so much more!

What does all this desk and test time mean for the quality of our kids’ lives, now and for their future?

putting in a second shift of homework after seven hours in school does not help my son become a more inquisitive, confident, life-long learner with an intrinsic sense of curiosity and joy in discovery. It does not allow my family to strike a graceful balance between school and home life. It does not leave time for those non-academic pursuits — lying on a blanket under the sky and puzzling out the constellations, peering under rocks, putting a nose in a book for long, lost hours — that can shape a child’s personality, aspirations and dreams.

a growing body of scientific data tells us that a brain under chronic stress is a brain that performs less well.

Since I believe it is time for a better word and a better concept to drive American education, I recommend “vigor.” Here my dictionary says, “active physical or mental force or strength, healthy growth; intensity, force or energy.” And my mental association is to all the Latin-based words related to life.

Now, more than ever, “rigor” is being used to promote the idea that American students need advanced course work, complex texts, stricter grading, and longer school days and years in order to be ready for college or the workplace.