How to Sell Conservatism: Lesson 1 — Pretend You’re a Reformer (##)

October 20, 2010 How to Sell Conservatism Lesson 1 — Pretend You’re a Reformer By Alfie Kohn If you somehow neglected to renew your subscription to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, you may have missed a couple of interesting articles last year. A series of studies conducted by two independent groups of researchers (published in the September and November 2009 issues, respectively) added … Read More

School Would Be Great If It Weren’t for the Damn Kids

September 17, 2010 School Would Be Great If It Weren’t for the Damn Kids By Alfie Kohn Robert J. Samuelson, an economics writer, published a column about school reform in both the Washington Post and Newsweek that had me imagining a conversation as it would play out in a sitcom. We hear Samuelson saying, “Few subjects inspire more intellectual dishonesty and political puffery … Read More

Debunking the Case for National Standards (#)

EDUCATION WEEK January 14, 2010 Debunking the Case for National Standards One-Size-Fits-All Mandates and Their Dangers By Alfie Kohn [This is a slightly expanded version of the article published in Education Week’s annual “Quality Counts” issue.] I keep thinking it can’t get much worse, and then it does.  Throughout the 1990s, one state after another adopted prescriptive education standards enforced … Read More

How to Create Nonreaders (#)

  ENGLISH JOURNAL Fall 2010 — vol. 100, no. 1 How to Create Nonreaders Reflections on Motivation, Learning, and Sharing Power By Alfie Kohn Autonomy-supportive teachers seek a student’s initiative…whereas controlling teachers seek a student’s compliance.                                                                                                        — J. Reeve, E. Bolt, & Y. Cai Not that you asked, but my favorite Spanish proverb, attributed to the poet Juan Ramón … Read More

Turning Children into Data (##)

EDUCATION WEEK August 25, 2010 Turning Children into Data: A Skeptic’s Guide to Assessment Programs By Alfie Kohn Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. – Albert Einstein Programs with generic-sounding names that offer techniques for measuring (and raising) student achievement have been sprouting like fungi in a rainforest:  “Learning Focused Schools,” … Read More

Competitiveness vs. Excellence: The Education Crisis That Isn’t (##)

August 9, 2010 Competitiveness vs. Excellence The Education Crisis That Isn’t By Alfie Kohn “What’s the matter with us?” demands Bob Herbert in a recent New York Times column. “The latest dismal news on the leadership front” proving that we’ve become “a nation of nitwits” comes courtesy of a report from the College Board, he says. “At a time when a … Read More

Bad Signs (#)

KAPPA DELTA PI RECORD Fall 2010 Bad Signs By Alfie Kohn You can tell quite a lot about what goes on in a classroom or a school even if you visit after everyone has gone home.  Just by looking at the walls – or, more precisely, what’s on the walls — it’s possible to get a feel for the educational … Read More

Spoiled Rotten — A Timeless Complaint (commentary)

WASHINGTON POST July 18, 2010 Spoiled Rotten — A Timeless Complaint By Alfie Kohn [This is an expanded version of the published article, which appeared in the Post’s Sunday “Outlook” section.] Pour lire cet article en français, cliquer ici. If the subject is kids and how they’re raised, it seems our culture has exactly one story to tell.  Anyone who reads newspapers, … Read More

So What SHOULD Parents Do?

April 2010 So What SHOULD Parents Do? By Alfie Kohn “If rewards and punishments just make things worse, what should parents do?”  The question is perfectly reasonable yet very difficult to answer in a simple and satisfying way. That’s true, first, because everything depends on how the question ends: What should parents do . . . to make kids do whatever we tell … Read More