Comments- Part VII

• Some theories of education amount to the teacher as kind of a pizza delivery person.  The information is cooked, sliced, packaged, and delivered to the door (mind) of the student.  Other view the teacher as kind of a cookbook.  In it the precepts are laid out, the recipe is available.  It is up to the learner to get in there and do the cooking.  "Learning is not unlike cooking."  Even if it is only book knowledge, learning involves doing.
• While some nations make bad decisions when they are resource poor, others make poor decisions when they are resource rich.  Others make poor decisions in either case.  People, too.
• The foremost aspect of any great book is that of allowing it to speak to you.  This is far more than absorbing knowledge.   It is more than comparing it with your precepts.  It is more than rejecting or accepting its tenets.  It is all about learning.
• I do believe New York City deserves what it will get in a new mayor.  Whether Weiner or Quinn is the victor, the city is in for a happening.  My goodness, how many will bail?  (When we say this, we imply that those leaving will be only among the population having such an option.)   
• Things that immobilize or paralyze the soul:  self-doubt, self-pity, regret, doubt, indulgence, hate, guilt, failure, hopelessness, false words.   On another tack, there is conflict.  Some folks keep themselves in a state of conflict, perhaps on love, perhaps on politics, perhaps on profession.  This induces the much desired paralytic state of inaction.
• Things that nourish the soul: love, confidence, purpose, success, hope, hard work. 
• Things that are past the point of no return:  road & bridges, honesty, compromise, good will, respect. 
• Many are the people with great potential, but no direction.  Their course often follows a random path of great leaps. 
• Achievement is an accumulation of many, often minute, steps toward a single goal.  Nothing great can occur in a single day without many months or years of careful preparation. 
• The diary is a wonderful way of talking to your future self.
• Paying more for the same thing does not improve the product.
• You can't entertain yourself to a good education.  (Now and then you need to work. Now and then you need to think.) 
• Standardized tests will not go away and not get any better.