Boredom is the specter that haunts children from kindergarten to graduation on every continent. — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“Wealth had made rigor optional in America. But everything had changed. In an automated, global economy, kids needed to be driven; then… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“most Americans said teaching was a hard and important job, but many of them, including teachers and teaching professors, didn’t seem to… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“It was interesting to note that higher standards were seen not as an investment in students; they were seen, first and foremost,… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“Wealth had made rigor unnecessary in the United States, historically speaking. Kids didn’t need to master complex material to succeed in life—not… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“The Finns decided that the only way to get serious about education was to select highly educated teachers, the best and brightest… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“Everywhere I went, in every country, people complained about their education system. It was a universal truth and a strangely reassuring one.… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“We had the schools we wanted, in a way. Parents did not tend to show up at schools demanding that their kids… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“One thing was clear: To give our kids the kind of education they deserved, we had to first agree that rigor mattered… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“In almost every other developed country, the schools with the poorest students had more teachers per student; the opposite was true in… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“rigor mattered. Koreans understood that mastering difficult academic content was important. They didn’t take shortcuts, especially in math. They assumed that performance… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“Finally, it was clear that the real innovation in Korea was not happening in the government or the public schools. It was… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“Statistically speaking, tracking tended to diminish learning and boost inequality wherever it was tried. In general, the younger tracking happened, the worse… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“The question then was not what other countries were doing, but why. Why did these countries have this consensus around rigor? In… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“The more time I spent in Finland, the more I started to worry that the reforms sweeping across the United States had… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“I’d been looking around the world for clues as to what other countries were doing right, but the important distinctions were not… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“In Finland, all education schools were selective. Getting into a teacher-training program there was as prestigious as getting into medical school in… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“The Korean private market had unbundled education down to the one in-school variable that mattered most: the teacher. It was about as… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“Tracking in elementary school was a uniquely American policy. The sorting began at a very young age, and it came in the… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“In many U.S. schools, sports instilled leadership and persistence in one group of kids while draining focus and resources from academics for… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
“Economists had found an almost one-to-one match between PISA scores and a nation's long term economic growth. Many other things influenced economic… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share Image
Well, there isn't any one profile of a survivor, but there are profiles. Depending on the disaster you have certain advantages and disadvantages just… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share
Resilience is a precious skill. People who have it tend to also have three underlying advantages: a believe that they can influence life events;… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share
By sort of combining the research of a lot of smart people, I came up with an equation for dread [dread=uncontrollability+unfamiliarity+imaginability+suffering+scale of destruction+unfairness]. The… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share
The one thread that was most surprising and most consistent was the lack of fear that people felt at the worst moment. They felt… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share
“Since 9/11, the U.S. government has sent over $23 billion to states and cities in the name of homeland security. Almost none of that… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share
“One thing was clear: To give our kids the kind of education they deserved, we had to first agree that rigor mattered most of… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share
“Everywhere I went, in every country, people complained about their education system. It was a universal truth and a strangely reassuring one. No one… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share
My anxiety about disasters is lower. The more you know, the less scary any of this stuff is. And that's my hope for the… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share
“In almost every other developed country, the schools with the poorest students had more teachers per student; the opposite was true in only four… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share
“These days, we tend to think of disasters as acts of God and government. Regular people only feature into the equation as victims, which… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share
“Statistically speaking, tracking tended to diminish learning and boost inequality wherever it was tried. In general, the younger tracking happened, the worse the entire… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share
“Economists had found an almost one-to-one match between PISA scores and a nation's long term economic growth. Many other things influenced economic growth, of… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share
“The Iron Child culture was contagious; it was hard for kids and parents to resist the pressure to study more and more. But all… — Amanda Ripley Copy Share
