Bonus Points

Many people, however accomplished in their careers, wish they had time to go back to school to learn something new. Staff writer Valerie Strauss asked people who are successful in various fields what they would study today if they had the time:

Yo-Yo Ma

Cellist

This isn't exactly a course, but I wish I'd had a chance to play more sports when I was a kid, so if I could go back to school, I'd definitely be trying out for teams. I would also love to take a great physics course, to help me better understand the world around me.

Condoleezza Rice

Secretary of state

Art history.

Sheila Ford

Principal, Horace Mann Elementary School, the District; vice chairman, National Assessment Governing Board

I'd want to study literacy and reading and writing, with a concentration on urban education.

Owen Gingerich

Research professor of astronomy and history of science, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Greek! For some years, I have felt I had a misspent youth because I had never taken any Greek. . . . Another time around would include Greek so that I could also examine ancient science.

Wynonna Judd

Country music artist

Geography. I take my kids, Elijah and Grace, all over the world with me, but there are so many countries that have evolved and have become sovereign over the years . . . which makes me wish for a constant geography refresher course. You can never know enough about the world.

Arthur Caplan

Director of the Center for Bioethics; professor, University of Pennsylvania

I would take a course in statistics. . . . The world we live in is one of risk, probability, luck and chance. Knowing more about statistics would put me in a better position both to conduct studies of key issues in bioethics and to better understand what I read in the journals and hear at lectures.