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
running children thinking
Some who support [more] coercive strategies assume that children will run wild if they are not controlled. However, the children for whom this is true typically turn out to be those accustomed to being controlled— those who are not trusted, given explanations, encouraged to think for themselves, helped to develop and internalize good values, and so on. Control breeds the need for more control, which is used to justify the use of control.
issues doe pay
If rewards do not work, what does? I recommend that employers pay workers well and fairly and then do everything possible to help them forget about money. A preoccupation with money distracts everyone - employers and employees - from the issues that really matter.
evaluation grades rating
Grades are a subjective rating masquerading as an objective evaluation.
smart thinking challenges
What is wrong with encouraging students to put "how well they're doing" ahead of "what they're doing." An impressive and growing body of research suggests that this emphasis (1) undermines students' interest in learning, (2) makes failure seem overwhelming, (3) leads students to avoid challenging themselves, (4) reduces the quality of learning, and (5) invites students to think about how smart they are instead of how hard they tried.
important quality needs
The late W. Edwards Deming, guru of Quality management, once declared, 'The most important things we need to manage can't be measured.' If that’s true of what we need to manage, it should be even more obvious that it’s true of what we need to teach.
school punishment two-sides
Punishments and rewards are two sides of the same coin and that coin doesn't buy you much.
people psychology rewards
Social psychology has found the more you reward people for doing something, the more they tend to lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward.
growing-up should-have democracy
Students should not only be trained to live in a democracy when they grow up; they should have the chance to live in one today.
children strings-attached perspective
Most of us would protest that of course we love our children without any strings attached. But what counts is how things look from the perspective of the children
school horror testing
Standardized testing has swelled and mutated, like a creature in one of those old horror movies, to the point that it now threatens to swallow our schools whole.
achievement focus important
A preoccupation with achievement is not only different from, but often detrimental to, a focus on learning. Thoughts and emotions while performing an action are more important in determining subsequent engagement than the actual outcome of that action.
punishment moral-growth erode
Punishments erode relationships and moral growth.
play risk trying
Very few things are as dangerous as a bunch of incentive-driven individuals trying to play it safe.
moving punishment rewards
Unconditional parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason