Quote

I think the most important thing that young people should be taught at school is how they can decide what they're being told is true.

I think there's so much negative influence on children in school settings. It becomes learning by rote to pass a test. It's not contextualized.

I say this as a young dad seeing children going into primary school: I don't think we should underestimate the formative effect on a child of those first years in primary school.

It's not that our high school system was not designed well, but that it was designed in 1906 when the country was just out of the industrial era. There hasn't been a substantial systemic change the way we do high school since then.

I would hate to be in high school now. Psychologists talk about the 'imaginary audience' that teens seem to feel they have around them and that makes them think they have to keep up their image all the time. Now with Facebook and MySpace and 24/7 online access, that imaginary audience has become real.

The only thing that everyone needs to look out for is keeping the students reading through high school and thereafter.

High school is such a shared experience in North American culture.

Again, the truth of the matter is we haven't paid that much attention to high school accountability.

I think that you should definitely listen to what people say, because everyone says it: High school is not the real world.

I look back and see the kids who made it through school - it made a huge difference in their lives, which made me believe in the power of public education and what it can do for individuals and communities and the state.