EDUCATION WEEK September 17, 2003 The Folly of Merit Pay By Alfie Kohn There’s no end to the possible uses for that nifty little Latin phrase Cui bono?, which means: Who benefits? Whose interests are served? It’s the right question to ask about a testing regimen guaranteed to make most public schools look as though they’re failing. Or about the assumption … Read More
Almost There, But Not Quite (**)
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP March 2003 Almost There, But Not Quite By Alfie Kohn The late educational researcher John Nicholls once remarked to me that he had met a lot of administrators who “don’t want to hear a buzz of excitement in classrooms — they want to hear nothing.” His implication was that some teachers strive to keep tight control over students … Read More
How Not to Get Into College: The Preoccupation with Preparation
INDEPENDENT SCHOOL Winter 2002-03 How Not to Get Into College The Preoccupation with Preparation By Alfie Kohn Education…is a process of living and not a preparation for future living. — John Dewey In 1981, while I was teaching at an independent school, this journal published my very first article about education. It was an ironic commentary, perhaps a tad … Read More
Another Look At Workplace Incentives
UNPUBLISHED 2002 Another Look at Workplace Incentives By Alfie Kohn This short essay was written in 2002 as an invited contribution to an anthology. The author who had extended the invitation, a supporter of incentive systems, subsequently declined to publish it. Managers and consultants with a strong professional interest in continuing to use – or convincing others to use – … Read More
The 500-Pound Gorilla (**)
PHI DELTA KAPPAN October 2002 The 500-Pound Gorilla By Alfie Kohn The best reason to give a child a good school. . .is so that child will have a happy childhood, and not so that it will help IBM in competing with Sony. . . There is something ethically embarrassing about resting a national agenda on the basis of sheer … Read More
Education’s Rotten Apples (**)
EDUCATION WEEK September 18, 2002 Education’s Rotten Apples By Alfie Kohn Like other people, educators often hold theories about how the world works, or how one ought to act, that are never named, never checked for accuracy, never even consciously recognized. One of the most popular of these theories is a very appealing blend of pragmatism and relativism that might … Read More
The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation (**)
CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION November 8, 2002 The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation By Alfie Kohn Grade inflation got started … in the late ’60s and early ’70s…. The grades that faculty members now give … deserve to be a scandal. –Professor Harvey Mansfield, Harvard University, 2001 Grades A and B are sometimes given too readily — Grade A for work … Read More
Beware of the Standards, Not Just the Tests (**)
EDUCATION WEEK September 26, 2001 Beware of the Standards, Not Just the Tests By Alfie Kohn A number of prominent educators are finally raising their voices against standardized testing—particularly multiple-choice, norm-referenced tests; particularly tests with “high stakes” (read: bribes and threats) attached; and particularly in the context of a federal mandate to force every state to test every student in … Read More
Five Reasons to Stop Saying “Good Job!” (**)
YOUNG CHILDREN September 2001 Five Reasons to Stop Saying “Good Job!” By Alfie Kohn NOTE: An abridged version of this article was published in Parents magazine in May 2000 with the title “Hooked on Praise.” For a more detailed look at the issues discussed here — as well as a comprehensive list of citations to relevant research — please see the books Punished … Read More
Education’s Different Drummer
WASHINGTON POST January 9, 2001 Education’s Different Drummer Alfie Kohn Is Marching Against Standardized Learning, and He Has Gained a Nationwide Following By Jay Mathews Washington Post Staff Writer One day in 1967, a sweet-faced, bespectacled fifth-grader at Leroy D. Fienberg Elementary School in Miami Beach was given a class assignment. No one remembers what it was about, which is … Read More