“A person walking into a genial classroom knows almost at once that it is a place dedicated to the celebration of learning and young minds; a cognitive greenhouse, so to speak, that honors and celebrates the capacities of each and every student. In a genial classroom, there are frequent outbursts of energy representing students' exuberance in discovering something new, in making novel connections, in confronting and overcoming challenges, in being surprised or delighted, intrigued or mystified, and indignant or outspoken about the ideas and materials being presented.”

“I believe that all genial classrooms share at least five characteristics that guide their instruction regardless of content or grade level. These characteristics are (1) freedom to choose, (2) open-ended exploration, (3) freedom from judgment, (4) honoring every student's experience, and (5) belief in every student's genius.”

“I entered the classroom with the conviction that it was crucial for me and every other student to be an active participant, not a passive consumer...education as the practice of freedom.... education that connects the will to know with the will to become. Learning is a place where paradise can be created.”

“When we introduce new technologies into our classrooms we are teaching our students twice.”

“Unexamined wallpaper is classroom practices and institutional policies that are so entrenched in school culture or a teacher's paradigm that their ability to affect student learning is never probed.”

“The future teachers I try to recruit are those show have refused to let themselves be neutered in this way, either in their private lives or in the lives that they intend to lead in school. When they begin to teach, they come into their classrooms with a sense of affirmation of the goodness and the fullness of existence, with a sense of satisfaction in discovering the unexpected in their students, and with a longing to surprise the world, their kids, even themselves, with their capacity to leave each place they've been ... a better and more joyful place than it was when they entered it.”