Can you remember a moment when the world dropped away and there remained only the teacher, the topic, and yourself? Some combination of events had occurred to block out all distractions—the connections you were seeing were so powerful that you didn’t want the time to pass. Your field of view narrowed to encompass only the teacher’s face. A clear description of such a moment is contained in one of my favorite books in education, George Leonard’s 1968 work Education and Ecstasy.

Garrison, T. 2005. Review of Leaving the Lectern—Cooperative Learning and the Critical First Days of Students Working in Groups, by D.A. McManus. Oceanography 18(4):139–141, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2005.20.

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