Letter to Students: Cliffs Notes for A Faster Brain

Dear Kids,

Happy first day of school! I've got good news and bad news.

First the bad news: You are about to spend hundreds of hours learning a bunch of small, interconnected facts, most of which you will never, ever, ever use again. (Ask your parents how to calculate out the area of a rhombus. I rest my case.)

Now the good news: school is hugely, amazingly, life-changingly worthwhile. Here's why: learning bunches of interconnected facts makes your brain faster and stronger. School is like a...