Keller articulated a philosophy of education that went far beyond the accumulation of facts. She challenged the graduates: if she asked them to explain quantum mechanics, she didn't want a string of facts. She wanted them to describe 'how quantum mechanics has utterly upended everything we thought we knew about the universe, because it means — quite literally — that anything is possible.' This was her definition of what education should prepare people for: 'a passionate and ongoing engagement with facts, a way of transforming what you know into what you do.' The personal response — the moment of wonder, the ah-ha of recognition — was as essential as the knowledge itself. She reinforced this with a beautiful observation about reading: 'When you read a book, there are always two sides to that story: there is the book, but there is also you. Even if the information has been known for many years, it wasn't known to you — and that makes it a magical moment, the moment when you make the knowledge yours.'