Howard Gardner — American Psychologist born on July 11, 1943,

Howard Earl Gardner is an American developmental psychologist and the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. He is currently the Senior Director of Harvard Project Zero, and since 1995, he has been the co-director of the Good Project... (wikipedia)

Anything that is worth teaching can be presented in many different ways. These multiple ways can make use of our multiple intelligences.
I'd rather see the United States as a beacon of good work and good citizenship, rather than as #1 on some international educational measurement.
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.
I believe that the brain has evolved over millions of years to be responsive to different kinds of content in the world. Language content, musical content, spatial content, numerical content, etc.
If I know you're very good in music, I can predict with just about zero accuracy whether you're going to be good or bad in other things.