If there is one bit of advice that we hear from nearly everyone who is dedicated to substantial improvement in education, it is this: We must maintain high expectations of our students. . .

If we want to raise our expectations of college students, we must raise our expectations of college. We need to make colleges and universities the kinds of places where undergraduate students learn the power of learning, and relearn the power of education. That means making them places where we, along with our students, unlearn the false lessons that the calcified and nonfunctional patterns of schooling have taught us, lessons that serve us all so poorly. . .

What is important is this: As we change the way we do the work of education, we must at every step move towards expecting more, never less, of our students and of ourselves. A college or university should be, and can be, a place where people come with high expectations and learn to surpass them. Learning, after all, is discovering that you are more than you thought you were. . .

For too long, we have expected too little of our students. And the reason is that we have expected too little of ourselves. One way or another, we are linked to them. We cannot escape them. If we look at them as they are and find them wanting, inventory their faults and their weaknesses and are appalled, they become our excuse for inaction and our rationale for disillusionment. But if we look at them as they might be, as we would want them to become, as they can be, then they can be our models for right action. The people our students could become, if only we sustain them on the journey, can be our mentors and guides.