By Nature, I Am Not An Optimist,

I Am Relieved That, In My Own Teaching, I Don't Have To Moderate Between High Stake Teaching And Education For The Virtues. If I Did, I Would Give Students The Tools To Take The Tests But Not Spend An Inordinate Amount Of Time On Test Prep Nor On 'teaching To The Test.' If The Students, Or Their Parents, Want Drill In Testing, They'd Have To Go Elsewhere. As A Professional, My Most Important Obligation Is To Teach The Topic, Skills, And Methods In Ways That I Feel Are Intellectually Legitimate.

Well, If Storytelling Is Important, Then Your Narrative Ability, Or Your Ability To Put Into Words Or Use What Someone Else Has Put Into Words Effectively, Is Important Too.

We Can Enhance Our Intelligences, But I Am Never Going To Become Yo-yo Ma, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Or Pele.

A Good Person Is One Who Follows The Ten Commandments And The Golden Rule. There Is Plenty Of Precedent In History To Guide Us And We Probably Evolved To Be Sensitive To Bible-golden Rule Situations. But The Dilemmas Faced By A Worker - A Journalist, An Architect, An Auditor - Or By A Citizen (what Position To Take On Stem Cell Research, Whether To Run For Office, What Is The Proper Balance Between Taxation And Social Nets) - Are Not Questions That Can Be Answered By Traditional Texts Or Precedents.

Kids Go To School And College And Get Through, But They Don't Seem To Really Care About Using Their Minds. School Doesn't Have The Kind Of Long Term Positive Impact That It Should.