Learning should be engaging. Testing should not be the be all and end all. All students should have a broad curriculum that includes the arts and enrichment. Students should have opportunities to work in teams and engage in project-based learning. And student and family well-being should be front and center.

Kids need time for problem solving, critical thinking, applying knowledge through project-based instruction, working in teams, falling down and getting right back up to figure out what they didn't understand and why.

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.

If we want to recruit and retain high-quality teachers, it starts with a fair wage, adequate working conditions, and the resources and support to succeed. Remember: teachers' working conditions are students' learning conditions.

When you have to do all the more crappy jobs before, you appreciate all the good work that comes out of that. There are many girls who immediately have a top model career, and there are lots of models who are doing things that aren't as exciting as doing big campaigns and beautiful magazines.

Raymond Chandler managed to write about L.A. his whole career. Should I keep going writing about New York? Is that what I should be doing? Songwriting doesn't work that way.

Don't tell me how to do my job. I don't come to your workplace and tell you how to sweep up.

Red Interactive, the digital advertising agency, is a real, systemic kind of business, as opposed to a one-off thing. We can help advertisers frustrated by old media find clients they can work with.