Many educators assume that close links between schooling and everyday experience are necessary for students to be motivated and to learn. That assumption should be reconsidered. To promote equality of opportunity and to develop scientific understanding, schools should help students break with everyday experience. Cognitive researchers recognize the value of breaks, yet show their ambivalence by advocating continuity; this ambivalence is particularly true of John Dewey. Ambivalence may result from recognizing that breaks with everyday experience come at a cost. When these costs are weighed against the contributions breaks make to equality of opportunity and disciplinary understanding the importance of breaks remains clear. A five-page list of references is included. (Author/JD)