In almost every area of human endeavor, the practice improves over time. That hasn't been the case for teaching.

Teaching's hard! You need different skills: positive reinforcement, keeping students from getting bored, commanding their attention in a certain way.

Teachers, who are really good create that environment where you can be very satisfied by the process of learning. If you do something and you find it a very satisfying experience then you want to do more of it. The great teachers somehow convey in their very attitude and their words and their actions and everything they do that this is an important thing you're learning. You end up wanting to do more of it and more of it and more of it. That's a real talent some people have to convey the importance of that and to reflect it back to the students.

Youth - our greatest resource - is being seriously neglected in a vital respect. The nation as a whole is not preparing teachers or building schools fast enough to keep up with the increase in our population.

I could never teach a class on songwriting. I'd tell them to goof off and find a good hideout.

Digital technology has several features that can make it much easier for teachers to pay special attention to all their students.