In this article, the author compares teaching and learning to the maintenance of an old car that leaks oil and must constantly be "topped up." Learning is a complex process of taking in and leaking out. The retention of new information is constantly under assault by an array of personal and contextual factors, such as a lack of interest, fatigue, time of day, and challenging content. Everyone has his or her own unique set of learning leaks. Much of the information oil teachers pour into their students never makes it to their engines--their brains. Good teaching assists the brain's natural efforts to organize and retain information--to learn. This learning process is facilitated and sustained when teachers grab their students' attention, activate prior learning, select the essentials, and focus on meaningfulness. Good teachers know how grabbing their students' attention activates inert information while covering only the essential concepts attaches more meaning to their content, resulting in their students learning more and leaking less. Instructions for generating interest, activating prior learning, selecting the essentials, and focusing on meaningfulness are presented.