Posted Jan. 20 - While traveling recently, I found myself across from a large family sharing breakfast together. They had the usual in front of them: pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, melon, orange juice … and cell phones. Seven people, five cell phones. A couple of them were into their own things on their phones, but the others were sharing pictures, videos and stories.

At one corner of the table was a young woman, perhaps 6 or 7 years old, who I was ready to admit to Manchester on the spot because she was entertaining herself with a banana. One minute it was a telephone (the old-fashioned kind that connects ear and mouth), then a swing, then Geordi La Forge’s Star Trek visor, then a hand-held vacuum cleaner.

As she played there at the table, I recognized in her the sort of student we want at Manchester. And I recognized the future of the SAT: a banana.