People tend to do things because that's how they have always done them or because that's the way others have done them. Schools are no different. The rigid factory model of education--a conveyor belt that moves children through a standard curriculum of books and lessons in a strict sequence--assumes that all brains are basically the same. They aren't. The myriad possible neural connections, as well as the relative strengths and weaknesses of these connections, suggests that brains are as varied and individual as fingerprints or DNA. The factory model also assumes that teaching and learning are synonyms. They are not. But one wouldn't know it listening to the frustrations voiced by many teachers. The factory model of schooling rests on other equally faulty assumptions about learning: the belief that thinking is essentially a rational, unemotional process. Teachers talk about the need to "get emotions out of the way." While creating safe, positive classrooms is important, the role of emotion in learning is much more complex. Typically, educators conclude that students who do poorly in school are somehow broken--learning disabled, oppositional, hyperactive, or lazy. The schools try to fix them. Research into learning suggests the need to fix the schools, not the kids. New insights demand new assumptions, and new assumptions require rethinking and redesigning the entire system, not just tinkering with what goes on in the classroom. This is a huge task, and parents can be essential partners. Parents are teachers; they are advocates for their children; and they are the people to whom schools must answer. Given their roles and their power, parents have a responsibility to study this research and make sure that the people who work with their children also study it.