David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

teaching children at precisely the age
when they begin to make the difficult
transition to adolescence. They are
awkward and self-conscious and
anxious about seeming too smart. Getting
them to engage, to move beyond simple
question-and-answer sessions with their
teacher, she said, can be “like pulling
teeth.” She wanted lots of interesting and
diverse voices in her classrooms, and
the kind of excitement that comes from a
critical mass of students grappling with
the same problem. How do you do that
in a half-empty room? “The more
students you have,” she continued, “the
more variety you can have in those
discussions. If it’s too small with kids