“Since the Civil War...the most unruly, the most independent, the most republican of American citizens have been the small farmer.”

“[The public school system is] usually a twelve year sentence of mind control.Crushing creativity, smashing individualism, encouraging collectivism andcompromise, destroying the exercise of intellectual inquiry, twisting itinstead into meek subservience to authority.”

“We do not always proclaim loudly the most important thing we have to say. Nor do we always privately share it with those closest to us, our intimate friends, those who have been most devotedly ready to receive our confession.”

“Suicide, I decided, hurt. A lot. Clearly, this had been a bad idea. I wouldn’t be trying that again.”

“You know your vote doesn't count, but you go through the motions, because it's been drummed into your head that you might be the one person who makes a difference.”

“The most beautiful faces have some ugly in them.”

“[The] overuse and misuse of standardized tests is only the start of the problems with NCLB. NCLB uses these test scores to impose sanctions that have no record of success as school improvement strategies, and in fact are not really educational strategies at all. They're political strategies designed to promote privatization and market reform in public education.”