Grades dilute the pleasure that a student experiences on successfully completing a task. — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
To control students is to force them to accommodate to a preestablished curriculum. — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
Assessments should compare the performance of students to a set of expectations, never to the performance of other students. — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
Students should not only be trained to live in a democracy when they grow up; they should have the chance to live… — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
In some suburban schools, the curriculum is chock-full of rigorous A.P. courses and the parking lot glitters with pricey SUVs, but one… — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
In a word, learning is decontextualized. We break ideas down into tiny pieces that bear no relation to the whole. We give… — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
Saying you taught it but the student didn't learn it is like saying you sold it but the customer didn't buy it. — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
In outstanding classrooms, teachers do more listening than talking, and students do more talking than listening. Terrific teachers often have teeth marks… — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
John Dewey reminded us that the value of what students do 'resides in its connection with a stimulation of greater thoughtfulness, not… — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
What is wrong with encouraging students to put "how well they're doing" ahead of "what they're doing." An impressive and growing body… — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
“Many of our elected officials have virtually handed the keys to our schools over to corporate interests. Presidential commissions on education are commonly chaired… — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
“a grade can be regarded only as an inadequate report of an inaccurate judgment by a biased and variable judge of the extent to… — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
In some suburban schools, the curriculum is chock-full of rigorous A.P. courses and the parking lot glitters with pricey SUVs, but one doesn't have… — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
Standardized testing has swelled and mutated, like a creature in one of those old horror movies, to the point that it now threatens to… — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
If a child is off-task...mayb e the problem is not the child...maybe it's the task. — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
If unconditional love and genuine enthusiasm are present, praise isn't necessary. If they're absent, praise won't help. — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
Most of us would protest that of course we love our children without any strings attached. But what counts is how things look from… — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
What can we surmise about the likelihood of someone's being caring and generous, loving and helpful, just from knowing that they are a believer?… — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
When was the last time you spent the entire day with only 42 year olds? — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
Punishment and reward proceed from basically the same psychological model, one that conceives of motivation as nothing more than the manipulation of behavior. — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
Each time I visit such a classroom, where the teacher is more interested in creating a democratic community than in maintaining her position of… — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
Educators remind us that what counts in a classroom is not what the teacher teaches; it’s what the learner learns. — Alfie Kohn Copy Share Image
