When we home schooled my oldest, Jasper, in eighth grade, I saw how empowering it is for a child to learn in their own way. That rebooted my thinking about education.

Before the eighth grade, I probably went to seven or eight different schools.

In seventh and eighth grade, grammar and vocabulary were not my favorite subjects.

I almost got kicked out of eighth grade for selling 'Playboy.'

He was a star before a lot of those guys were stars. We saw a tape of his eighth-grade team with Tyson Chandler and Josh Childress, and he was the best guy on the team.

I was a schoolteacher; I taught seventh and eighth grade, and I tried to write fiction on the side.