Three authors, writing from different perspectives in different time periods, share the view that students' sense of personal agency is fundamental to their intellectual engagement and deep understanding. The learner's imagination leads to powerful questions that grow when exposed to processes of productive inquiry and social interaction and when guided by images of high quality performance. These books are refreshing in their expansive and optimistic assumptions about students and teachers, their know-how about unleashing human potential in schools, and their experience that excellent work is the essential goal for all students. (Contains 4 endnotes.)