(*) = 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

Aggression

• “Are Humans Innately Aggressive?”, Psychology Today, June 1988

Altruism. See Caring

Assessment. See Grades and assessment

Attention-deficit disorder

• “Suffer the Restless Children,” Atlantic Monthly, November 1989 (*)
• Addendum to "Suffer the Restless Children," 1998 (*)

Biological determinism. See Nature/Nurture

Business and education. See also Privatization

• “The 500-Pound Gorilla,” Phi Delta Kappan, October 2002 (**)
• "Against 'Competitiveness,'" Education Week, September 19, 2007
• “Students Don't ‘Work’ - They Learn,” Education Week, September 3, 1997 (*)
• "When 21st-Century Schooling Just Isn't Good Enough: A Modest Proposal," District Administration, February 2009
• “Save Our Schools . . . from Business,” School Administrator, October 1995
• “Turning Learning into a Business: Concerns About ‘Total Quality,’” Educational Leadership, September 1993 (*)
• [For more: Education, Inc.: Turning Learning into a Business (Heinemann, 2002)]

Camping

• “Rethinking Character Education: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom about Camp and Kids,”
  Camping Magazine, September/October 2003

Caring

• "Caring Kids: The Role of the Schools," Phi Delta Kappan, March 1991 (*)
• “Human Nature's Brighter Side,” Teacher Magazine, June/July 1990
• “The ABCs of Caring,” Teacher Magazine, January 1990
• “Raising Kids Who Care,” Ladies Home Journal, December 1989
• “Do Religious People Help More?” Psychology Today, December 1989
• “Altruism Within Egoism,” The Nation, May 29, 1989
• “Beyond Selfishness,” Psychology Today, October 1988
• [For more: The Brighter Side of Human Nature: Altruism and Empathy in Everyday Life (Basic, 1990)]

Character education

• "How Not to Teach Values: A Critical Look at Character Education," Phi Delta Kappan, Feb. 1997 (*)
• “Rethinking Character Education: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom about Camp and Kids,” Camping Magazine, September/October 2003
• “The Trouble with School Uniforms,” Boston Globe, October 2, 1996 (*)

Cheating

• "Who's Cheating Whom?", Phi Delta Kappan, October 2007

Classroom management

• "Almost There, But Not Quite," Educational Leadership, March 2003 (**)
• "The Limits of Teaching Skills," Reaching Today’s Youth, Summer 1997 (*)
• "Beyond Discipline," Education Week, November 20, 1996 (*)
• "Discipline Is the Problem -- Not the Solution," Learning, October-November 1995
• “Rethinking Discipline: A Conversation with Alfie Kohn,” Growing Without Schooling, May-June 1997
• [For more: Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community (ASCD, 1996)]

College admission

• "How Not to Get Into College: The Preoccupation with Preparation," Independent School, Winter 2002-03

Compensation

• "The Folly of Merit Pay," Education Week, September 17, 2003 (**)
• “Another Look at Workplace Incentives,” unpublished, 2002
• "Challenging Behaviorist Dogma: Myths About Money and Motivation," Compensation & Benefits Review, March-April 1998
• “Why Incentive Plans Cannot Work,” Harvard Business Review, Sept.-Oct. 1993
• "For Best Results, Forget the Bonus," New York Times, October 17, 1993
• “Why Rewards Undermine Performance,” American Compensation Association Journal, Summer 1995 [interview]
• “Why Incentives Fail,” CFO magazine, September 1994 [interview]

Competition and cooperation

• "Against 'Competitiveness,'" Education Week, September 19, 2007
• “Competition vs. Excellence” (op ed), New York Times, April 26, 1991
• “Group Grade Grubbing versus Cooperative Learning,” Educational Leadership, February 1991
• “No Contest” [competition in the workplace], Inc. magazine, November 1987
• "Fun and Fitness Without Competition" [competition and sports], Women's Sports & Fitness, July-August 1990
• "The Case Against Competition" [competition and children], Working Mother, September 1987
• “Is Competition Ever Appropriate in a Cooperative Classroom?”, Cooperative Learning Magazine, vol. 13, no. 3 (1993)
• “Cooperation: What It Means and Doesn't Mean,” in Cooperation: Beyond the Age of Competition, edited by A. Combs (Gordon & Breach, 1992)
• “Resistance to Cooperative Learning: Making Sense of Its Deletion & Dilution,” Journal of Education, vol. 174 (1992) (*)
• [For more: No Contest: The Case Against Competition (Houghton Mifflin, 1986/1992)]

Corporate involvement in education. See Business and education

Critical thinking

• "Challenging Students -- And How to Have More of Them," Phi Delta Kappan, November 2004

Democratic education

• "Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide," Phi Delta Kappan, September 1993 (*)

Discipline at home. See Parenting

Discipline in school. See Classroom management

Education, goals of

• "What Does It Mean to Be Well-Educated?", Principal Leadership, March 2003 (**)

Early childhood education

• "Early Childhood Education: The Case Against Direct Instruction of Academic Skills," in The Schools Our Children Deserve

Equity issues

• "Only for My Kid: How Privileged Parents Undermine School Reform," Phi Delta Kappan, April 1998 (*)
• “Poor Teaching for Poor Kids,” Language Arts, January 2002
• "Standardized Testing and Its Victims," Education Week, September 27, 2000 (**)
• "A Promise Unfulfilled: 150 Words on Brown v. Board," [NASSP] NewsLeader, May 2004

Existentialism

• "Existentialism Here and Now," The Georgia Review, Summer 1984
• "The Case for Sondheim as Existentialist," The Sondheim Review, Spring 2000

Grades and assessment

• "The Trouble with Rubrics," English Journal, March 2006
• "The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation," Chronicle of Higher Education, November 8, 2002 (**)
• "The Costs of Overemphasizing Achievement" School Administrator, November 1999 (**)
• "From Degrading to De-Grading," High School Magazine, March 1999 (**)
• “Emphasis Belongs on Learning, Not Grades,” Boston Globe, September 15, 1995 (*)
• "Grading: The Issue Is Not How but Why," Educational Leadership, October 1994 (*)

High schools

• "Constant Frustration and Occasional Violence: The Legacy of American High Schools," American School Board Journal, September 1999 (**)

Homeschooling

• “Home Schooling,” Atlantic Monthly, April 1988

Homework

• "Changing the Homework Default," Independent School, Winter 2007
• "The Goldilocks Paradox," American School Board Journal, February 2007
• "Rethinking Homework," Principal, January-February 2007
• "The Tougher Standards Fad Hits Home," Rethinking Schools, Fall 2006
• "The Truth About Homework," Education Week, September 6, 2006
• "Abusing Research: The Study of Homework and Other Examples," Phi Delta Kappan, September 2006
• "Down with Homework," Instructor, September 2006
• "Kids May Be Right After All: Homework Stinks," USA Today, September 14, 2006
• "Rethinking Homework Surveys," unpublished, 2009
• [For more: The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing (Da Capo, 2006)]

Human nature

• "Caring Kids: The Role of the Schools," Phi Delta Kappan, March 1991 (*)
• "Human Nature's Brighter Side,” Teacher Magazine, June/July 1990
• [For more: The Brighter Side of Human Nature: Altruism and Empathy in Everyday Life (Basic, 1990)]

Incentives. See Rewards and praise; Compensation

Instruction. See Pedagogy

Interviews. See Profiles of (and interviews with) Alfie Kohn

Joy

• "Feel-Bad Education: The Cult of Rigor and the Loss of Joy," Education Week, September 15, 2004

Maslow, Abraham

• "A Look at Maslow's 'Basic Propositions,'" in Perceiving, Behaving, Becoming: Lessons Learned, edited by H. J. Freiberg (Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 1999)

Math

• Excerpts from The Schools Our Children Deserve, 1999

Merit pay

• "The Folly of Merit Pay," Education Week, September 17, 2003 (**)

Money. See also Compensation

• "In Pursuit of Affluence, at a High Price," New York Times, February 2, 1999

Nature/Nurture

• "Back to Nurture" American Health, April 1993
• "Are Humans Innately Aggressive?", Psychology Today, June 1988

Parenting

• "Parental Love with Strings Attached," New York Times, September 15, 2009
• "Five Reasons to Stop Saying 'Good Job!,'", Young Children, September 2001 (**)
• "Atrocious Advice from "Supernanny," The Nation, May 23, 2005
• “How to Raise an Assertive Child,” Parenting, April 1995
• “The Case Against Gold Stars,” Parents, October 1993
• “The Spoiled Child,” Ladies Home Journal, May 1991
• “The Risks of Rewards,” Health, May 1990
• “Raising Kids Who Care,” Ladies Home Journal, December 1989
• “The New Discipline,” Ladies Home Journal, November 1989
• “Suffer the Restless Children,” Atlantic Monthly, November 1989 (*)
• "The Case Against Competition," Working Mother, September 1987
• “Rethinking Discipline: A Conversation with Alfie Kohn,” Growing Without Schooling, May-June 1997
• [For more: Unconditional Parenting (Atria Books, 2005)]

Parents and education

• "Only for My Kid: How Privileged Parents Undermine School Reform," Phi Delta Kappan, April 1998 (*)

Pedagogy

• "It's Not What We Teach; It's What They Learn," Education Week, September 10, 2008
• "Unconditional Teaching," Educational Leadership, September 2005
• "Getting-Hit-on-the-Head Lessons," Education Week, September 7, 2005
• "Almost There, But Not Quite," Educational Leadership, March 2003(**)
• "Education's Rotten Apples," Education Week, September 18, 2002 (**)
• "Moving Beyond Facts, Skills, and Right Answers," from The Schools Our Children Deserve, 1999
• "The Value of Negative Learning," Education Week, September 16, 2009
• "Unlearning How We Learned," Washington Post, October 10, 1999
• "The Trouble with 'Back-to-Basics' and 'Tougher Standards,'" School Board News, September 14, 1999
• "Students Don't 'Work' - They Learn," Education Week, September 3, 1997 (*)
• "What to Look for in a Classroom," Educational Leadership, September 1996 (*)
• "In Defense of the Progressive School: An Interview with Alfie Kohn," Independent School, Fall 1999
• "The Limits of Teaching Skills," Reaching Today’s Youth, Summer 1997 (*)
• “A Conversation with Alfie Kohn,” The Constructivist, Summer 1997
• “Offering Challenges, Creating Cognitive Dissonance,” The Active Learner [Foxfire Journal], March and July 1997
• [For more: The Schools Our Children Deserve (Houghton Mifflin, 1999)]

Political issues

• "September 11", Rethinking Schools, Winter 2001/02 (**)
• "Value Human Life, Not American Power," Boston Globe, March 16, 1991

Preparation

• "Getting-Hit-on-the-Head Lessons," Education Week, September 7, 2005
• "How Not to Get Into College: The Preoccupation with Preparation," Independent School, Winter 2002-03

Preschool. See Early Childhood Education

Privatization

• "Test Today, Privatize Tomorrow," Phi Delta Kappan, April 2004
• “NCLB and the Effort to Privatize Public Education,” in Many Children Left Behind, ed. by D. Meier and G. Wood (Beacon Press, 2004)
• "School Choice Myths," Boston Globe, April 24, 1993 (*)

Profiles of (and interviews with) Alfie Kohn

• "Test Ban Entreaty" Hope Magazine, January/February 2004
• “Testing on Trial: Educator Alfie Kohn Speaks Out,” Creative Classroom, January/February 2002
• "'Fighting the Toxic Status Quo': Alfie Kohn on Standardized Tests & Teacher Ed.," English Education, January 2002
• "Education's Different Drummer," Washington Post, January 9,2001
• “Crusader Argues School Reforms Hinder Learning,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 22, 2000
• "In Defense of the Progressive School: An Interview with Alfie Kohn," Independent School, Fall 1999
• "The Compassion Our Children Deserve: An Interview with Alfie Kohn", Paths of Learning, Winter 2000 [PDF]
• “A Conversation with Alfie Kohn,” The Constructivist, Summer 1997
• “Rethinking Discipline: A Conversation with Alfie Kohn,” Growing Without Schooling, May-June 1997
• “Offering Challenges, Creating Cognitive Dissonance,” The Active Learner [Foxfire Journal], March and July 1997
• “The Trouble with Rewards: An Interview with Alfie Kohn,” Growing Without Schooling, September – October 1994
• “The Case Against Rewards and Praise: A Conversation with Alfie Kohn,” Harvard Education Letter, March-April 1994

Progressive education. See also Pedagogy

• "Progressive Education," Independent School, Spring 2008
• "The Value of Negative Learning," Education Week, September 16, 2009
• "The Trouble with Pure Freedom: A Case for Active Adult Involvement in Progressive Education," in The Directory of Democratic Education, 2nd ed., 2007
• "The (Progressive) Schools Our Children Deserve," Schools, Fall 2005
• "In Defense of the Progressive School: An Interview with Alfie Kohn," Independent School, Fall 1999
• "Feel-Bad Education: The Cult of Rigor and the Loss of Joy," Education Week, September 15, 2004
• "What to Look for in a Classroom," Educational Leadership, September 1996 (*)
• [For more: The Schools Our Children Deserve (Houghton Mifflin, 1999)]

Prosocial behavior. See Caring

Psychological issues

• “A Look at Maslow's Basic Propositions,” in Perceiving, Behaving, Becoming: Lessons Learned, edited by H. J. Freiberg (ASCD, 1999) (**)

Questioning

• "Challenging Students -- And How to Have More of Them," Phi Delta Kappan, November 2004
• “Don't Believe Everything You Hear,” Reader’s Digest, July 1992
• [For more: You Know What They Say…: The Truth About Popular Beliefs(HarperCollins, 1990)

Reading

• "On Teaching Reading, Spelling, and Related Subjects" (excerpts from The Schools Our Children Deserve, 1999
• "A Closer Look at Reading Incentive Programs" (excerpt from Punished by Rewards), 1993/1999
• "Reflections on the School Librarians’ 'Standards for the 21st-Century Learner,'" Knowledge Quest, November-December 2009

Research

• "Abusing Research: The Study of Homework and Other Examples," Phi Delta Kappan, September 2006

Rewards and praise. See also Compensation

• "Cash Incentives Won't Make Us Healthier," USA Today, May 21, 2009
• "Five Reasons to Stop Saying 'Good Job!,'" Young Children, September 2001 (**)
• "Punished by Rewards?: A Conversation with Alfie Kohn," Educational Leadership, Sept. 1995
• "A Closer Look at Reading Incentive Programs" (excerpt from Punished by Rewards), 1993/1999
• "Newt Gingrich's Reading Plan," Education Week, April 19, 1995 (*)
• “The Risks of Rewards,” ERIC Digest, December 1994
• “The Risks of Rewards,” Health, May 1990
• “The Case Against Rewards and Praise: A Conversation with Alfie Kohn,” Harvard Education Letter, March-April 1994
• “Rewards in the 'Real World': The Workplace, the Classroom, and the Status Quo,” Cooperative Learning Magazine, vol.14, no. 2, (1994)
• [For more: Punished by Rewards (Houghton Mifflin, 1993/1999)]

Rubrics

• "The Trouble with Rubrics," English Journal, March 2006

SAT

• "Two Cheers for an End to the SAT," Chronicle of Higher Education, March 9, 2001 (**)

Satires & parodies

• "When 21st-Century Schooling Just Isn't Good Enough," District Administration, February 2009
• "Accelerated Direct Success" English Journal, September 2001
• "Fig. 37: Reciprocal Systemic Analysis of Programmatic Integration..."

School choice. See Privatization

School safety

• “Safety from the Inside Out,” Educational Horizons, Fall 2004

Self-discipline

• "Why Self-Discipline Is Overrated," Phi Delta Kappan, November 2008

Self-esteem

• "The Truth About Self-Esteem," Phi Delta Kappan, December 1994 (*)

Standards and testing. See list of essays about standards and testing.

Student involvement

• "Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide," Phi Delta Kappan, September 1993 (*)

Teacher education

• "Professors Who Profess: Making a Difference as Scholar-Activists," Kappa Delta Pi Record, Spring 2003 (**)
• "'Fighting the Toxic Status Quo': Alfie Kohn on Standardized Tests and Teacher Education," English Education, January 2002 [profile]

Teaching. See Pedagogy

Television

• "Television and Children: ReViewing the Evidence," in What to Look for in a Classroom . . . and Other Essays

Testing. See list of essays about standards and testing.

Uniforms

• "The Trouble with Uniforms," Boston Globe, October 2, 1996

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