October 4, 2015 The Back-to-School-Night Speech We’d Like to Hear* By Alfie Kohn Is this working? [taps microphone] I do believe it is! OK, if everyone can please find a seat, we’d like to get started. Thanks so much for coming out tonight! We’ve reserved plenty of time for discussion — obviously I’m not going to talk at you all … Read More
The “Mindset” Mindset
SALON August 16, 2015 The “Mindset” Mindset What We Miss By Focusing on Kids’ Attitudes The emphasis on effort in Dweck’s “growth mindset” is most notable for the larger questions it discourages us from asking. By Alfie Kohn One of the most popular ideas in education these days can be summarized in a single sentence — a fact that may … Read More
Cheerful to a Fault: “Positive” Practices with Negative Implications
July 11, 2015 Cheerful to a Fault “Positive” Practices with Negative Implications By Alfie Kohn We live in a smiley-face, keep-your-chin-up, look-on-the-bright-side culture. At the risk of being labeled a professional party pooper, I’d like to suggest that accentuating the positive isn’t always a wise course of action where children are concerned. I say that not because I’ve joined the … Read More
What’s the Real Purpose of Classroom Management?
June 25, 2015 What’s the Real Purpose of Classroom Management? By Alfie Kohn Everyone knows why classroom management skills are considered a critical part of teacher training. The reason we need to minimize “misbehavior” and get students to show up, sit down, and pay attention is so we can teach them stuff. That proposition is so obvious that it’s … Read More
Schooling Beyond Measure – (Book)
Schooling Beyond Measure And Other Unorthodox Essays About Education (Heinemann, 2015) In this collection of provocative articles and blog posts originally published between 2010 and 2014, Alfie Kohn challenges the conventional wisdom about topics ranging from how low-income children are taught, to whether American schools have really fallen behind those in other countries. Why, he asks, do we assume learning can ... Read More
Four Reasons to Worry About “Personalized Learning”
February 23, 2015 Four Reasons to Worry About “Personalized Learning” By Alfie Kohn Tocqueville’s observations about the curious version of democracy that Americans were cultivating in the 1830s have served as a touchstone for social scientists ever since. One sociologist writes about the continued relevance of what Tocqueville noticed way back then, particularly the odd fact that we cherish our … Read More
Progressive Labels for Regressive Practices
January 31, 2015 Progressive Labels for Regressive Practices How Key Terms in Education Have Been Co-opted By Alfie Kohn “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.” — Lewis Caroll, Through the Looking Glass “Whole language” (WL), a collaborative, meaning-based approach … Read More
Does Homework Improve Learning?
Chapter 2 of THE HOMEWORK MYTH (Da Capo Press, 2006) Copyright © 2006 by Alfie Kohn Does Homework Improve Learning? By Alfie Kohn Because the question that serves as the title of this chapter doesn’t seem all that complicated, you might think that after all this time we’d have a straightforward answer. You might think that open-minded people who … Read More
Lowering the Temperature on Claims of “Summer Learning Loss”
Lowering the Temperature on Claims of “Summer Learning Loss” The idea of summer learning loss — the implication being that it’s risky to give kids a three-month vacation from school because they’ll forget everything they were taught — has become the media’s favorite seasonally specific education topic. And that’s not just because they’re desperate for something to write about when … Read More
The Limits of “Time on Task”
The Limits of “Time on Task” Adapted from The Homework Myth (Da Capo Press, 2006) Back “when experimental psychologists mainly studied words and nonsense syllables, it was thought that learning inevitably depended upon time,” a group of educational psychologists explained. But “subsequent research suggests that this belief is false.”[1] Why? Let’s begin by conceding that the statement “People need … Read More