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
teaching taught students
Saying you taught it but the student didn't learn it is like saying you sold it but the customer didn't buy it.
children mistake feelings
If children feel safe, they can take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, learn to trust, share their feelings, and grow.
strong educational desire
Educational success should be measured by how strong your desire is to keep learning.
teacher classroom educator
Educators remind us that what counts in a classroom is not what the teacher teaches; it’s what the learner learns.
school kids differences
The difference between a good educator and a great educator is that the former figures out how to work within the constraints of traditional policies and accepted assumptions, whereas the latter figures out how to change whatever gets in the way of doing right by kids. 'But we've always...', 'But the parents will never...', 'But we can't be the only school in the area to...' - all such protestations are unpersuasive to great educators. If research and common sense argue for doing things differently, then the question isn't whether to change course but how to make it happen.
teacher talking listening
In outstanding classrooms, teachers do more listening than talking, and students do more talking than listening. Terrific teachers often have teeth marks on their tongues.
commitment punishment shoes
If I offered you a thousand dollars to take off your shoes, you'd very likely accept--and then I could triumphantly announce that 'rewards work.' But as with punishments, they can never help someone develop a *commitment* to a task or action, a reason to keep doing it when there's no longer a payoff.
children taken rights
Children, after all, are not just adults-in-the-making. They are people whose current needs and rights and experiences must be taken seriously.
children learning decision
Children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions.
school house tests
Don't let anyone tell you that standardized tests are not accurate measures. The truth of the matter is they offer a remarkably precise method for gauging the size of the houses near the school where the test was administered.
community equally problems punishment rather solving striking
What is equally striking to me is this ... there isn't a sense of a community solving problems together, rather there's punishment for aberrant individuals.
argue arguing learn point stand welcome
You have to welcome their arguing with you, not to the point of disrespect, but if they are going to stand up for themselves, they need to learn to argue effectively,
children parents
Most parents want to know what they can do to make their children do as they're told,
constantly control gold good parent spanking sticker ways whether
We think of ways that we can control them, whether it be with a spanking or a gold sticker or a parent constantly saying, 'Good job, good job, good job.'