If I had to give one piece of advice to a budding entrepreneur, I would say: 'Aim big.'

You need more than just a great idea. Your product or service must add an enormous amount of value to some industry. If the idea isn't completely new, it has to be better, cheaper, or more efficient than what we already have.

The factory model of education is a gargantuan bureaucracy. Some kids are good fits - I wasn't. The system gives you bad grades and tells you you're stupid. You don't think, 'If this kid's not a good fit, it could be the system's fault.'

I found school very boring and frustrating.

Ohio has long been an embarrassment to charter-school supporters nationwide, with its trail of scandal and graft and abysmal student performance.

There are terrific models for success with reluctant readers, but many school systems and state governments need to set aside their 'not invented here' and 'we have more important problems than education' attitudes.

To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.

I love teaching creative writing, and I think I'm good at it, but in a different life, I could have been teaching elementary school.