I've just finished reading Seth Godin's manifesto, Stop Stealing Dreams.  This is a relatively short manifesto on school reform - and while a lot of it isn't new (heck, Marshal McLuhan was hitting similar topics of student engagement in the 1960s) it certainly takes a great many current issues of school reform and organizes the ideas in an insightful and coercive manner.   Godin certainly has a killer ability to frame things in powerful ways.  Although most of the document is aimed at teachers, I particular liked these rules for students, that I will be posting in my classroom:

1. Grades are an illusion
2. Your passion and insight are reality
3. Your work is worth more than mere congruence to an answer key
4. Persistence in the face of a skeptical authority figure is a powerful ability
5. Fitting in is a short-term strategy, standing out pays off in the long run
6. If you care enough about the work to be criticized, you’ve learned enough for
today