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“…as the Times was evolving from …a stenographic paper of record into one that valued literary as well as reportorial skills. Or, as he put it, ‘the old sins were about getting something wrong. The new sin is to be boring.’”

“…that the apartment building lobby is an experiment in sociological synergy… For doormen to be professionals, they must have distinct tenants. For tenants to have distinction, they must have professional doormen.”

“… zip code 10021, …[from which] Its residents contributed more to presidential candidates in 2004 than donors in any other zip code in the country.”

“[The mayor] said he envisioned the day when Lady Liberty “not only welcomes new immigrants, but lights their way with a torch powered by an ocean wind farm.”

“…children have a natural tendency to take things apart. …’From a knowledge of the outside, instinct prompts the desire to know the inside, and, therefore, children usually destroy their toys.’”

“The kindergarten was to be ‘a commonwealth or republic of children, contrasted with the old-fashioned school, which is an absolute monarchy.’ The ratio of 1 adult to 1 child might do in infancy, but as children get older and more active, ‘a sufficient society of children’ was ‘the indispensable thing.’”

“[Pestalozzi’s] educational theory: that children learn best when they follow their own interests; that perception is the source of all learning; that children learn best through [physical] activity; and that ethical and moral education come from love and trust, which first develops between mother and child.”

“Positive reinforcement, capitalizing on children’s innate curiosity, replaced a system of dictation and rigid codes for good behavior.”

“…‘Good Toys,’ a catchall term for playthings that encouraged imagination, stimulated the mind, promote active play, and eschewed violence.”

“…the [constructivist] child as ‘an independent experimenter investigating a world of objects, solving the epistemological problems of space, time, causality, and categorizing.’”

“Young children learn… with teachers as guides rather than sources of information.”

"...creating a shared spatial economy centered on public education, recreation, and transportation safe and open for all [children]."

"...as they grow, many children lose opportunities to create their own environment, bounded by a text-centric view of education and concerns for safety. Despite adults' desire to create a safer, softer child-centric world, something got lost in translation."

"From the late 19th century on, [people] wanted to get children out of the city[, into private homes, and bused to suburban schools as part of an age-segregated model]. Children were to be their parents’ problem, and the building of playrooms and the purchasing of play equipment created an ideal of childhood that was privatized and consumer-driven."

“Pushed and pulled by the perceptions of children’s space needs, the average size of the American house grows from 980 sq. ft. in 1950 to 1,660 sq. ft. in 1973 to 2,600 sq. ft. today.”

“…knowledge has to be learned from experiences… Through active experiment children construct their understanding of the world”

“Loris Malaguzzi called environment ‘the third teacher’”

“I don’t [know]. But sometimes you have to pretend… The certainty comes later.”

“To live without the weight of everything you were not”

“Something about raising kids, something about gardening. Imagine pulling up a plant by its shoots to try and force it to grow.”

“And yet for all the kids who had grown up in the Bay Area, in the shadow of Stanford’s influence, this was the kind of school that felt equal parts too far away and too close to home.”

“Change came faster now that Alex was gone, now that she could no longer watch so carefully.”

“Will, who had always loved art, who saw beauty and wanted it, to make or to consume or to just be around.”

"Especially with a long, complicated illness, you're going to have lots of doctors traipsing in and out of your hospital room. ...pick [your] favorite doctor and instruct everyone else to talk to her [so she] could then screen what each doctor said and tell [you] exactly what [you] need to know in terms [you] can understand."

"...you can find a medical billing advocate to help you. To find one, visit the website of Medical Billing Advocates of America. The Fairness Foundation, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, and the Patient Advocate Foundation also offer help to those in debt."

"People think they have to pay the amount on the bill. But doctors and hospitals are very willing to negotiate. For more tips on negotiating, read the book 'My Healthcare Is Killing Me'; there's a free version online (www.myhealthcareiskillingme.com)."

"...ask for an itemized copy of your bill to check for accuracy."

"A 2008 report from the Commonwealth Fund found that more than 1 in 4 Americans is paying off medical debt. Nearly one-third of those with medical debt were unable to pay for food, rent, or heat, and some even took out a mortgage or a loan against their home in order to pay this debt."