"Ellington would be growing up in a culture saturated with an idea you might call the cognitive hypothesis: the belief, rarely expressed aloud but commonly held nonetheless, that success today depends primarily on cognitive skills ... and that the best way to develop these skills is to practice them as much as possible, beginning as early as possible" (Page xiii).

"In neighborhoods like Bayview - Hunter's Point and Roseland, many of the problems we generally think of as social issues - the province of economists and sociologists - are actually best analyzed and addressed on the molecular level, down deep in the realm of human biology" (Page 9).

"Children who grow up in stressful environments generally find it harder to concentrate, harder to sit still, harder to rebound from disappointment, and harder to follow directions. And that has a direct effect on their performance in school" (Page 17).

"When we look...