We Interrupt This Tour…

NEW ENGLAND MONTHLY April 1987 We Interrupt This Tour… By Alfie Kohn Edgar F. Beckham, now in his fourteenth year as Dean of the College at Wesleyan University, is having trouble keeping still.  He shifts his considerable bulk on the leather chair in his office once again and shakes his head.  “Nothing has happened to me since I came here … Read More

Stop!: An Analysis of Boston Driving

BOSTON MAGAZINE September 1985 Stop! An Analysis of Boston Driving By Alfie Kohn What you’ve always suspected is absolutely true.  Boston is the most dangerous U.S. city in which to drive.  One in five insured Boston drivers put in a claim for collision in 1983.  The runner-up was New York City, where the rate was a paltry one in eight. You can … Read More

What’s Up, Doc?

BOSTON MAGAZINE December 1984 What’s Up, Doc? Real, Live Family Practitioners By Alfie Kohn Dr. Manuel Lowenhaupt strides into the examining room and sticks out his hand.  “Nice to meet you.  I think I know the rest of your family.”  Nineteen-year-old Brenda Wilkins (a pseudonym, as are all patients’ names in this article) gives a perfunctory greeting and launches into … Read More

B. F. Skinner: Reinforced by Life

BOSTON MAGAZINE July 1984 B. F. Skinner: Reinforced by Life By Alfie Kohn If a dozen people show up for one of these “sandwich seminars” sponsored by Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, it’s a good day.  Every Thursday at noon, a different academic comes to talk about his or her latest research, and a few students drop in with lunch in … Read More