It's not about teaching the child to read. It's about teaching the children to love to read.

You have to do this early. 'You want it so that when the child gets older, they want to go to the library.

A 6-month-old is going to put a book in their mouth, which is fine ? this is why they make cardboard books!

We make love on it, our children scratch their names beneath, ... Then you bring other women while I am out of town. And I can always sense when a stranger has sat down.

I've come to the frightening conclusioin that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized.

There's a lot of talk these days about giving children self-esteem. It's not something you can give; it's something they have to build. Coach Graham worked in a no-coddling zone. Self-esteem? He knew there was really only one way to teach kids how to develop it: You give them something they can't do, they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating the process.