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.

China is not particularly interested in sharing much of the wealth the railroad would generate. Most of the benefits, critics say, would flow to China while most of the costs would be borne by the host nation. The price tag of the $7 billion, 260-mile rail project, which Laos will borrow from China, is nearly equal to the tiny $8 billion in annual economic activity in Laos

Some Laotians, unhappy with the unmistakable Chinese presence, complain that their country is becoming little more than a province of China or, more slyly, a vassal state.

Finland has vastly improved in reading, math and science literacy over the past decade in large part because its teachers are trusted to do whatever it takes to turn young lives around.

“If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect.”

When graded, children tended to prefer easier assignments and became less interested in learning for learning's sake. Studies also revealed that receiving low grades did not motivate kids to study more.

"It's important to remember that grades are a communication tool with a lot of gray area that varies from school to school," says Dr. Russell Hyken