Don't ever put anything past kids. They will surprise you in the best ways.

You start thinking the world is a certain way and forgetting that there's another world outside of the campus boundaries that has nothing to do with what is your world at the time.

I'm pretty much your average, energy-saving-light-bulbs-recycling citizen.

I remember one day during my freshman year of high school, when as usual I was obsessively listening to a cast recording: it may have been 'Jesus Christ Superstar.' And I remember sitting there, totally absorbed, saying to myself, 'I can do this.'

We left my birthplace, Brooklyn, New York, in 1939 when I was 13. I enjoyed the ethnic variety and the interesting students in my public school, P.S. 134. The kids in my neighborhood were only competitive in games, although unfriendly gangs tended to define the limits of our neighborhood.

Standardized testing is at cross purposes with many of the most important purposes of public education. It doesn't measure big-picture learning, critical thinking, perseverance, problem solving, creativity or curiosity, yet those are the qualities great teaching brings out in a student.

I had three miscarriages, then, at forty-eight, a child with serious developmental difficulties. He is a blessing and a jewel. He is my teacher. From him I get and give unconditional love.

The pace at which people are taking to digital technology defies our stereotypes of age, education, language and income.