INDEPENDENT SCHOOL Fall 1999 Vol. 59, No. 1 In Defense of the Progressive School An Interview with Alfie Kohn By Kitty Thuermer A former teacher turned author and lecturer, Alfie Kohn was recently described by Timemagazine as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades [and] test scores.” We would add to this list “outspoken critic of our … Read More
The Limits of Teaching Skills (*)
REACHING TODAY’S YOUTH Summer 1997 The Limits of Teaching Skills By Alfie Kohn We are in love with skills. Not any specific skill, mind you, but the very idea that children’s problems can be remedied by teaching them skills. The model is so simple and familiar to us that we do not even think of it as a model. It … Read More
How Not to Teach Values: A Critical Look at Character Education (*)
PHI DELTA KAPPAN February 1997 How Not to Teach Values A Critical Look at Character Education By Alfie Kohn Teachers and schools tend to mistake good behavior for good character. What they prize is docility, suggestibility; the child who will do what he is told; or even better, the child who will do what is wanted without even having to … Read More
Beyond Discipline (*)
EDUCATION WEEK November 20, 1996 Beyond Discipline By Alfie Kohn A few years ago, I received a letter from a woman who was working on a book about a progressive educator. She said she was considering devoting a chapter of her manuscript to a discussion of a program called Assertive Discipline, which was at best only indirectly related to her … Read More
Newt Gingrich’s Reading Plan (*)
EDUCATION WEEK April 19, 1995 Newt Gingrich’s Reading Plan By Alfie Kohn Our culture is marinated in behaviorism. At work, at school, and at home, we take for granted that the way to get things done is to dangle goodies in front of people. Thus, it seemed perfectly reasonable to observers across the political spectrum when House Speaker Newt Gingrich … Read More
The Truth About Self-Esteem (*)
PHI DELTA KAPPAN December 1994 The Truth About Self-Esteem By Alfie Kohn [For an updated and expanded review of the research on this topic, please see chapter 6 (“The Attack on Self-Esteem”) of The Myth of the Spoiled Child, published in 2014.] The very act of “debating” a controversial issue tends to reduce the number of possible positions to … Read More
The Case Against Gold Stars
PARENTS MAGAZINE October 1993 The Case Against Gold Stars By Alfie Kohn Call it the “gold-star syndrome.” Sometimes we paste stars on a chart. At other times we offer toys or extra TV, candy or cash, pizza or special privileges. We reward kids for doing what we want instead of punishing them for disobeying. Pull out a child-care book at … Read More
Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide (*)
PHI DELTA KAPPAN September 1993 Choices for Children Why and How to Let Students Decide By Alfie Kohn The essence of the demand for freedom is the need of conditions which will enable an individual to make his own special contribution to a group interest, and to partake of its activities in such ways that social guidance shall be a … Read More
Group Grade Grubbing versus Cooperative LEARNING
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP March 1991 Group Grade Grubbing versus Cooperative Learning By Alfie Kohn Even before the recent surge of interest in cooperative learning (CL), researchers and practitioners were already staking out positions on precisely what the term denotes and how the idea should be implemented. Constructive controversies (or, less charitably, factional disputes) have arisen with respect to almost every aspect … Read More
Caring Kids: The Role of the Schools (*)
PHI DELTA KAPPAN March 1991 Caring Kids The Role of the Schools By Alfie Kohn “Education worthy of the name is essentially education of character,” the philosopher Martin Buber told a gathering of teachers in 1939.(1) In saying this, he presented a challenge more radical and unsettling than his audience may have realized. He did not mean that schools should … Read More