I think it's fairly unique to define the end goal of K-12 schooling as helping students become better thinkers, more creative thinkers, and to organize the whole school around creative and critical thinking.

One of the biggest reasons that teachers have trouble with student-centered learning is that they have to give over a level of control to the kids. And, when you do that, you can have chaos, or you can have high levels of learning. Often, teachers are afraid of the chaos.

If student A 'impacts' student B with a fist, they shouldn't 'dialogue as equals.' Student A should be disciplined. When you assault your co-worker or curse out your boss, you don't get a 'restorative circle' - you get fired.

To me, that is really fundamental to social justice: to have choices in life.

Learning is not limited to the classroom, and Minnesota shouldn't limit its education resources there, either.

Reading books might itself be a bit weird, but obviously okay, since books were part of school, and doing well in school was clearly a good thing. But comics were more like candy, just flashy wrappers without any nourishment. Cheap thrills.

As a teacher, my strategy is to encourage questioning. I'm the least authoritarian professor you'll ever meet.

At one point, I recognized that Warren Buffett, though he had every advantage in learning from Ben Graham, did not copy Ben Graham but, rather, set out on his own path and ran money his way, by his own rules... I also immediately internalized the idea that no school could teach someone how to be a great investor.