High school and college courses with a great deal of content are facing increasing difficulties in sharing that content in the classroom. The flood of new information available in most fields, our students’ inability to retain and integrate disciplinary content, and the increasing specialization and professionalization in many disciplines all combine to make course design increasingly difficult for instructors. Given the costs of contemporary education, we want both to offer courses that challenge our students and provide them with the knowledge that they need to participate fully in our society. What do we understand by the term academic rigor? How hard should our students work in our classes?  In this episode Dr. Estabrook reflects on academic rigor, how students acquire disciplinary content, and what we might do to confront current negative statistical trends.