My dad made a conscious choice to keep my family in Canada. I think he wanted us to have a pretty normal life and one that wasn't necessarily affected by the industry or all that comes with growing up in Hollywood.

In an age where overindulgence seems to be the norm, I can't help but look back and feel thankful that my parents chose to hold out on giving me everything that I wanted growing up.

My parents have always had this philosophy that overindulging your children is one of the worst things you could do as a parent. It's something that was hammered into my head growing up. And while my mom and dad are not professional authorities on parenting, I can confirm from experience that they had a point.

Growing up, my height was faithfully tracked from infancy to my late teens on the door frame of my mom's office - the only place in my family's home in Toronto where writing on the walls was encouraged.

Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.

My ambition in high school was to be a high school coach and teacher, and that's still what I do: teach.

When I go back to Texas, I travel the state, and I see people all the time who come up to me, men and women across Texas, and they grab me by the shoulder, and they're afraid. They say, 'Ted, you know, I just lost my health insurance. I got a child with diabetes. I'm scared. Please stop this from happening.'

To counter the avoidance of intellectual challenge and responsibility, we must reduce the domination of certainty in education.