Alfie Kohn
Alfie Kohn
Alfie Kohnis an American author and lecturer in the areas of education, parenting, and human behavior. He is a proponent of progressive education and has offered critiques of many traditional aspects of parenting, managing, and American society more generally, drawing in each case from social science research...
ProfessionNon-Fiction Author
Date of Birth15 October 1957
important may outcomes
We can't value only what is easy to measure; measurable outcomes may be the least important results of learning.
curriculum students force
To control students is to force them to accommodate to a preestablished curriculum.
powerful reality quality
The legendary statistical consultant W. Edwards Deming, . . . has called the system by which merit is appraised and rewarded 'the most powerful inhibitor to quality and productivity in the Western world' . . . it is simply unfair to the extent that employees are held responsible for what are, in reality, systemic factors that are beyond their control.
tasks students pleasure
Grades dilute the pleasure that a student experiences on successfully completing a task.
unconditional-love enthusiasm helping
If unconditional love and genuine enthusiasm are present, praise isn't necessary. If they're absent, praise won't help.
essence goal perspective
Strip away all the assumptions about what competition is supposed to do, all the claims in its behalf that we accept and repeat reflexively. What you have left is the essence of the concept: mutually exclusive goal attainment (MEGA). One person succeeds only if another does not. From this uncluttered perspective, it seems clear right away that something is drastically wrong with such an arrangement. How can we do our best when we are spending our energies trying to make others lose--and fearing that they will make us lose?
children teaching responsibility
In short, with each of the thousand-and-one problems that present themselves in family life, our choice is between controlling and teaching, between creating an atmosphere of distrust and one of trust, between setting an example of power and helping children to learn responsibility, between quick-fix parenting and the kind that's focused on long-term goals.
motivation punishment rewards
Punishment and reward proceed from basically the same psychological model, one that conceives of motivation as nothing more than the manipulation of behavior.
two excellence victory
Trying to do well and trying to beat others are two different things. Excellence and victory are conceptually distinct . . . and are experienced differently.
teacher teaching learning
The overwhelming number of teachers ...are unable to name or describe a theory of learning that underlies what they do.
years lasts last-time
When was the last time you spent the entire day with only 42 year olds?
team simple player
Being a team player should not imply a demand for simple obedience and conformity.
two numbers trying
Trying to be number one and trying to do a task well are two different things.
educational done students
Learning is something students do, NOT something done to students.