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

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

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

Getting Rid of Grades: Case Studies

January 2010 Getting Rid of Grades Case Studies By Alfie Kohn Given that most schools still send home report cards with letter or number grades, and most teachers still put these letters or numbers on students’ individual assignments, you would never guess that most studies of the effects of grades find that they’re destructive in multiple ways. For nearly a … Read More

Teachers Describe the Harms of Test-Driven School Reform

December 2009 Teachers Describe the Harms of Test-Driven School Reform By Alfie Kohn To understand the true impact of raise-the-bar, close-the-gap “school reform” – the type demanded by corporate executives, imposed by politicians of both parties, and celebrated by pundits – you need to hear from the people who spend their days in real classrooms. Never mind that no credible evidence has … Read More

Ted Sizer and Jerry Bracey: An Appreciation

October 2009 Ted Sizer and Jerry Bracey An Appreciation By Alfie Kohn The field of education lost two great men in October. Ted Sizer and Jerry Bracey were distinguished by the issues that animated them and the way they pursued their respective interests, but each made such an enormous contribution that his death leaves us bereft. In person, Ted Sizer was good-humored … Read More

Twenty-first Century Skills? It Depends What You Mean…

September 2009 Twenty-first Century Skills?  It Depends What You Mean… By Alfie Kohn About a year ago, I was invited to write a chapter for an education anthology on the subject of “21st-century skills.” I replied as follows: “To be perfectly honest, I’m never sure what’s meant by the phrase ’21st century’ when it’s used as a modifier for ‘skills,’ ‘standards,’ or … Read More

Bushobama

August 2009 Bushobama By Alfie Kohn “Obama is, in effect, giving George W. Bush a third term in education,”remarked Diane Ravitch, who worked in the elder Bush’s administration. Was she exaggerating? Well, for starters, notice that two of the most enthusiastic endorsements of President Obama’s choice of Arne Duncan as secretary of education came from the individuals who had held … Read More

More Evidence That Incentives Fail

May 2009 More Evidence That Incentives Fail By Alfie Kohn Punished by Rewards is surely the only book from which excerpts were simultaneously published in Parents magazine and the Harvard Business Review – evidence of how pervasive is our culture’s embrace of pop-behaviorism. In the family, the workplace, and the classroom, more-powerful people try to control less-powerful people by dangling some sort of reward … Read More