For Alfie Kohn’s blog posts, please click here.
For a list of articles dealing with standards and testing, click here.
Haga click aquí para ver la lista de artículos que han sido traducidos al Español.

(*) = included in What to Look for in a Classroom … and Other Essays
(**) = included in What Does It Mean to Be Well Educated? … and Other Essays
(#) = included in Feel-Bad Education … and Other Contrarian Essays on Children and Schooling
(##) = included in Schooling Beyond Measure… and Other Unorthodox Essays About Education

• Less and Less Curious
• EDUCATION WEEK
• October 2, 2024
• The Sneaky Conservativism of Ed Tech
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 27, 2023
• Why Feedback Often Doesn't Help
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 21, 2022
• Cooperative Games: Discovering How Much Fun Competition ISN'T
• Foreword to Cooperative Games
• 2022
• The Case Against Classroom Management . . . a Quarter-Century Later
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 22, 2021
• Foreword to Ungrading
• Foreword to Ungrading
• 2020
• Is Learning "Lost" When Kids Are Out of School?
• BOSTON GLOBE
• September 6, 2020
• The Pandemic Pivot
• EDUCATION WEEK
• August 19, 2020
• The Crucial Steps Are the Ones We May Have Skipped
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 3, 2019
• Can Everyone Be Excellent?
• NEW YORK TIMES
• June 16, 2019
• Civics Education -- The Safe Kind and the Subversive Kind
• WASHINGTON POST
• December 23, 2018
• Rewards Are Still Bad News 25 Years Later
• NEW YORK TIMES
• October 28, 2018
• It's Not About Behavior
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 5, 2018
• Cooperative Conflict: Neither Concurrence Nor Debate
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 13, 2017
• Raising an UnTrump
• SALON
• August 27, 2017
• On Punishment for Bullying -- and Punishment AS Bullying
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 07, 2016
• Men Are Still Paying for Women on Dates?
• BOSTON GLOBE
• April 17, 2016
• Trumped
• SALON
• March 28, 2016
• Clicking for Love
• BOSTON GLOBE
• January 10, 2016
• To Change What We Do, Consider What We Believe
• Foreword to The Teacher You Want to Be
• 2015
• Do This and You'll Get That: A Bad Way to Defend Good Programs
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 30, 2015
• "Helicopter Parenting" Hysteria
• SALON
• September 4, 2015
• Who's Asking?
• EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
• September 2015
• The "Mindset" Mindset
• SALON
• August 16, 2015
• Introduction to "More Than a Score"
• Introduction to More Than a Score
• 2014
• Grit: A Skeptical Look at the Latest Educational Fad (##)
• INDEPENDENT SCHOOL
• Fall 2014
• What Waiting for a Second Marshmallow Doesn't Prove (##)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 10, 2014
• Trophy Fury: What's Behind Claims that Kids Are Coddled and Overcelebrated?
• NEW YORK TIMES
• May 4, 2014
• The Downside of "Grit" (Commentary)
• WASHINGTON POST
• April 6, 2014
• Why I Write
• PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
• March 7, 2014
• This Time It's Different ... Again
• From Chap. 1 ("Permissive Parents, Coddled Kids, & Other Bogeymen")
• of The Myth of the Spoiled Child (Da Capo Books, 2014)
• Copyright © 2014 by Alfie Kohn
• The Attack on Self-Esteem
• Chapter 6 in THE MYTH OF THE SPOILED CHILD
• (Da Capo Books, 2014)
• The Roots of Grades-and-Tests
• Introduction to De-Testing and De-Grading Schools: Authentic Alternatives to Accountability and Standardization, edited by Joe Bower and P.L. Thomas (Peter Lang Publishing, 2013)
• Encouraging Courage (##)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 18, 2013
• Change by Decree (##)
• AMERICAN SCHOOL BOARD JOURNAL
• January 2013
• Whom We Admit, What We Deny
• INDEPENDENT SCHOOL
• Winter 2012
• The Case Against Homework
• FAMILY CIRCLE
• October 2012
• Schooling Beyond Measure (##)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 19, 2012
• Lowering the Temperature on Claims of "Summer Learning Loss" (##)
• July 20, 2012
• The Case Against Grades (##)
• EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
• November 2011
• Corridor Wit: Talking Back to Our Teachers
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 28, 2011
• Poor Teaching for Poor Children … in the Name of Reform (##)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• April 27, 2011
• “Well, Duh!” -- 10 Obvious Truths That We Shouldn’t Be Ignoring
• AMERICAN SCHOOL BOARD JOURNAL
• April 2011
• Debunking the Case for National Standards (#)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• January 14, 2010
• How to Create Nonreaders (#)
• ENGLISH JOURNAL
• Fall 2010 -- vol. 100, no. 1
• Turning Children into Data (##)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• August 25, 2010
• Bad Signs (#)
• KAPPA DELTA PI RECORD
• Fall 2010
• Spoiled Rotten -- A Timeless Complaint (commentary)
• WASHINGTON POST
• July 18, 2010
• Reflections on the School Librarians’ “Standards for the 21st-Century Learner”
• KNOWLEDGE QUEST
• November/December 2009
• Parental Love with Strings Attached (#)
• NEW YORK TIMES
• September 15, 2009
• The Value of Negative Learning (#)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 16, 2009
• Cash Incentives Won't Make Us Healthier (#)
• USA TODAY
• May 21, 2009
• When “21st-Century Schooling” Just Isn’t Good Enough: A Modest Proposal (#)
• DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION
• February 2009
• Beware of School “Reformers”
• THE NATION
• December 29, 2008
• Why Self-Discipline Is Overrated (#)
• PHI DELTA KAPPAN
• November 2008
• It's Not What We Teach; It's What They Learn (#)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 10, 2008
• Early Childhood Education: The Case Against Direct Instruction of Academic Skills (#)
• From Appendix A: “The Hard Evidence” in The Schools Our Children Deserve
• (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999)
• Progressive Education (#)
• INDEPENDENT SCHOOL
• Spring 2008
• Who’s Cheating Whom? (#)
• PHI DELTA KAPPAN
• October 2007
• Against "Competitiveness" (#)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 19, 2007
• Changing the Homework Default
• INDEPENDENT SCHOOL
• Winter 2007
• Rethinking Homework
• PRINCIPAL
• January/February 2007
• Kids May Be Right After All: Homework Stinks
• USA TODAY
• September 14, 2006
• The Truth About Homework
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 6, 2006
• Abusing Research: The Study of Homework and Other Examples
• PHI DELTA KAPPAN
• September 2006
• The Trouble with Rubrics (#)
• ENGLISH JOURNAL
• March 2006 -- vol. 95, no. 4
• Getting Hit on the Head Lessons (#)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 7, 2005
• The Trouble with Pure Freedom: A Case for Active Adult Involvement in Progressive Education
• Alternative Education Resource Organization [AERO]  Conference
• Keynote address, 2005
• The (Progressive) Schools Our Children Deserve
• SCHOOLS: Studies in Education
• Fall 2005
• Unconditional Teaching (#)
• EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
• September 2005
• Atrocious Advice from "Supernanny" (#)
• THE NATION
• May 23, 2005
• Parental Discipline and Race
• From the Appendix ("Parenting Styles: The Relevance of Culture, Class, and Race") to Unconditional Parenting (Atria Books, 2005) Copyright © 2005 by Alfie Kohn
• A Different View
• GREATER GOOD
• Spring-Summer 2005
• Pseudochoice
• From Chapter 9: "Choices for Children"
• in Unconditional Parenting (Atria Books, 2005)
• Challenging Students . . . And How to Have More of Them (#)
• PHI DELTA KAPPAN
• November 2004
• Feel-Bad Education: The Cult of Rigor and the Loss of Joy (#)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 15, 2004
• Safety from the Inside Out (#)
• EDUCATIONAL HORIZONS
• Fall 2004
• A Promise Unfulfilled: 150 Words on Brown v. Board
• NASSP NewsLeader
• May 2004
• Test Today, Privatize Tomorrow
• PHI DELTA KAPPAN
• April 2004
• Rethinking Character Education: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom about Camp and Kids
• CAMPING MAGAZINE
• September/October 2003
• The Folly of Merit Pay (**)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 17, 2003
• Professors Who Profess (**)
• KAPPA DELTA PI RECORD
• Spring 2003
• What Does It Mean to Be Well-Educated? (**)
• PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP
• March 2003
• [updated September 2015]
• Almost There, But Not Quite (**)
• EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
• March 2003
• How Not to Get Into College: The Preoccupation with Preparation
• INDEPENDENT SCHOOL
• Winter 2002-03
• Another Look At Workplace Incentives
• UNPUBLISHED
• 2002
• The 500-Pound Gorilla (**)
• PHI DELTA KAPPAN
• October 2002
• Education's Rotten Apples (**)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 18, 2002
• The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation (**)
• CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
• November 8, 2002
• The Worst Kind of Cheating
• STREAMLINED SEMINAR (a publication of the National Association of Elementary School Principals)
• Winter 2002-03 -- Vol. 21, No. 2
• Standardized Testing: Separating Wheat Children from Chaff Children
• 2002
• Requesting Testing
• RETHINKING SCHOOLS
• Summer 2002
• Fighting the Toxic Status Quo
• ENGLISH EDUCATION
• January 2002
• September 11 (**)
• RETHINKING SCHOOLS
• Winter 2001-02
• Beware of the Standards, Not Just the Tests (**)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 26, 2001
• Accelerated Direct Success
• [a parody advertisement]
• September 2001
• Five Reasons to Stop Saying "Good Job!" (**)
• YOUNG CHILDREN
• September 2001
• Emphasis on Testing Leads to Sacrifices in Other Areas (**)
• USA Today
• August 21, 2001
• One-Size-Fits-All Education Doesn’t Work
• BOSTON GLOBE
• June 10, 2001
• Two Cheers for an End to the SAT (**)
• THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
• March 9, 2001
• Education's Different Drummer
• WASHINGTON POST
• January 9, 2001
• Fighting the Tests: A Practical Guide to Rescuing Our Schools
• PHI DELTA KAPPAN
• January 2001
• Standardized Testing and Its Victims (**)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 27, 2000
• Opposing View (editorials)
• USA TODAY
• 2000-08
• The Case for Sondheim as Existentialist
• THE SONDHEIM REVIEW
• Spring 2000
• Poor Teaching for Poor Students: More Reasons to Boycott the MCAS Tests
• BOSTON GLOBE
• March 20, 2000
• Tests That Cheat Students
• NEW YORK TIMES
• December 9, 1999
• In Defense of the Progressive School
• INDEPENDENT SCHOOL
• Fall 1999 Vol. 59, No. 1
• The Costs of Overemphasizing Achievement (**)
• SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR November 1999
• On Teaching Reading, Spelling, and Related Subjects
• Excerpts from The Schools Our Children Deserve
• (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999)
• What Works Better than Traditional Math Instruction
• From Chapter 9: "Getting the 3 R's Right"
• in The Schools Our Children Deserve (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999)
• Moving Beyond Facts, Skills, and Right Answers
• From Chapter 3: "Getting Teaching and Learning Wrong"
• in The Schools Our Children Deserve (Houghton Mifflin, 1999)
• First Lesson: Unlearn How We Learned (commentary)
• WASHINGTON POST
• October 10, 1999
• Tougher Tests = Lower Standards
• BOSTON GLOBE
• September 29, 1999
• Confusing Harder With Better (**)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 15, 1999
• The Trouble With "Back-to-Basics" and "Tougher Standards"
• SCHOOL BOARD NEWS
• September 14, 1999
• A Look at Maslow’s “Basic Propositions”
• Originally published in Perceiving, Behaving, Becoming: Lessons Learned Edited by H. J. Freiberg  (Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 1999)
• Why Students Lose When Tougher Standards Win: A Conversation with Alfie Kohn
• EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
• September 1999
• Constant Frustration and Occasional Violence: The Legacy of American High Schools (**)
• AMERICAN SCHOOL BOARD JOURNAL September 1999
• From Degrading to De-Grading
• HIGH SCHOOL MAGAZINE
• March 1999
• In Pursuit of Affluence, at a High Price
• NEW YORK TIMES
• February 2, 1999
• Television and Children: ReViewing the Evidence
• Chapter 12 in What to Look for in a Classroom . . . and Other Essays
• (San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass, 1998)
• Introduction to What to Look for in a Classroom … and Other Essays
• San Francisco
• Jossey-Bass, 1998
• Only for My Kid: How Privileged Parents Undermine School Reform (*)
• PHI DELTA KAPPAN
• April 1998
• Challenging Behaviorist Dogma
• COMPENSATION & BENEFITS REVIEW
• March/April 1998
• Students Don't "Work"--They Learn (*)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• September 3, 1997
• The Limits of Teaching Skills (*)
• REACHING TODAY’S YOUTH
• Summer 1997
• How Not to Teach Values: A Critical Look at Character Education (*)
• PHI DELTA KAPPAN
• February 1997
• Beyond Discipline (*)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• November 20, 1996
• The Trouble with School Uniforms (*)
• BOSTON GLOBE
• October 2, 1996
• What to Look for in a Classroom (*)
•  EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
• September 1996
• Discipline Is The Problem -- Not The Solution
• LEARNING MAGAZINE
• October-November 1995
• Punished by Rewards?: A Conversation with Alfie Kohn
• EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
• September 1995
• Newt Gingrich’s Reading Plan (*)
• EDUCATION WEEK
• April 19, 1995
• The Risks of Rewards
• ERIC Digest
• December 1994
• The Truth About Self-Esteem (*)
• PHI DELTA KAPPAN
• December 1994
• Grading: The Issue Is Not How but Why (*)
• EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
• OCTOBER 1994
• Is Competition Ever Appropriate in a Cooperative Classroom?
• COOPERATIVE LEARNING MAGAZINE
• 1993 – vol. 13, no. 3
• A Closer Look at Reading Incentive Programs
• Excerpts from Punished by Rewards
• (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993/1999/2018)
• The Case Against Gold Stars
• PARENTS MAGAZINE
• October 1993
• For Best Results, Forget the Bonus
• NEW YORK TIMES
• October 17, 1993
• Turning Learning Into A Business: Concerns About 'Quality Management' at School (*)
• EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
• September 1993
• Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide (*)
• PHI DELTA KAPPAN
• September 1993
• Why We Should Avoid Rewards Even for Boring Tasks
• From Chapter 5: “Cutting the Interest Rate”
• of Punished by Rewards (Houghton Mifflin, 1993/2018)
• Changing Education from the Inside Out
• May 1993
• School Choice Myths (*)
• BOSTON GLOBE
• April 24, 1993
• Back to Nurture
• AMERICAN HEALTH
• April 1993
• Resistance to Cooperative Learning: Making Sense of Its Deletion and Dilution (*)
• JOURNAL OF EDUCATION
• 1992 – vol. 174, no. 2, pages 38-56
• Competition vs. Excellence
• NEW YORK TIMES
• April 26, 1991
• Value Human Life, Not American Power
• BOSTON GLOBE
• March 16, 1991
• Group Grade Grubbing versus Cooperative LEARNING
• EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
• March 1991
• Caring Kids: The Role of the Schools (*)
• PHI DELTA KAPPAN
• March 1991
• From You Know What They Say...: The Truth About Popular Beliefs
• (Harper Collins, 1990)
• The Humanity of Humans
• From THE BRIGHTER SIDE OF HUMAN NATURE: Altruism and Empathy in Everyday Life (Basic Books, 1990)
• Fun & Fitness Without Competition
• WOMEN’S SPORTS & FITNESS
• July/August 1990
• Getting a Grip on Schizophrenia
• LOS ANGELES TIMES
• June 25, 1990
• Do Religious People Help More? Not So You'd Notice
• PSYCHOLOGY TODAY
• December 1989
• Altruism Within Egoism (Book Review)
• THE NATION
• May 29, 1989
• Beyond Selfishness
• PSYCHOLOGY TODAY
• October 1988
• Paris Slide Show
• BOSTON GLOBE
• June 19, 1988
• Are Humans Innately Aggressive?
• PSYCHOLOGY TODAY
• June 1988
• Mind Over Matter: Inside the Christian Science Church
• NEW ENGLAND MONTHLY
• March 1988
• No Contest
• INC. Magazine
• November 1987
• The Case Against Competition
• WORKING MOTHER
• September 1987
• Attorney Relishes Unpopular Cases
• BOSTON GLOBE
• April 13, 1987
• We Interrupt This Tour…
• NEW ENGLAND MONTHLY
• April 1987
• Risking the Wind
• NEW ENGLAND MONTHLY
• January 1987
• To Forget Is Human; To Forgive, Tragic
• NEW ENGLAND MONTHLY
• April 1986
• Stop!: An Analysis of Boston Driving
• BOSTON MAGAZINE
• September 1985
• Struggling Toward Literacy
• BOSTON GLOBE MAGAZINE
• September 1, 1985
• Dialing for Dollars
• NEW ENGLAND MONTHLY
• July 1985
• What’s Up, Doc?
• BOSTON MAGAZINE
• December 1984
• Existentialism Here and Now
• THE GEORGIA REVIEW
• Summer 1984
• B. F. Skinner: Reinforced by Life
• BOSTON MAGAZINE
• July 1984
• Lottery Lies
• BOSTON PHOENIX
• April 10, 1984
• Rich Man, Poor Man
• BOSTON PHOENIX
• January 17, 1984
• Growth Potential
• BOSTON PHOENIX
• September 20, 1983
• Existential Quizzes
• BOSTON PHOENIX
• July 19, 1983
• How to Make the Least of Your College Years
• INDEPENDENT SCHOOL
• February 1981
• Rodents and the Barometry of Tension
• Brown Daily Herald
• April 22, 1976

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