Blog Posts

January 27, 2025 Heterogenius Why and How to Stop Dividing People into Us and Them By Alfie Kohn How can we use each other’s differences in our common battles for a livable future? – Audre Lorde Even as a child I was puzzled by people who wanted to hang out only with those who were very much like themselves. I ... Read More

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My current playlist is this diorama of Lulu the Piggy channeling Tupac Shakur in a toy vending machine in the basement of New World Mall in Flushing Chinatown.

A concerned nutritional epidemiologist in Tokyo realizes that if you are what you eat, that means… It’s a similar situation in Seoul, albeit with less oil and more confidence.

I realize that because I have several chairs, the phrase “my chair” is ambiguous. To reduce confusion, I will refer to the head of my academic department as “my office chair” going forward.

The Wikipedia article on antipopes can be pretty confusing! If you’d like to be even more confused, it can help with that!

May 23, 2024 The Siren Song of “Evidence-Based” Instruction By Alfie Kohn I’m geeky enough to get a little excited each time a psychology or education journal lands in my mailbox.1 Indeed, I’ve spent a fair portion of my life sorting through, critically analyzing, and writing about social science research. Even my books that are intended for general readers contain, ... Read More

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As the Ukrainian war enters its third year, there has been renewed, if rather limp, talk of a ceasefire followed by negotiations. The premise is that since neither side can ‘win’, it makes sense to start making peace. Few now remember that the war almost ended before it got going. On 24 February 2022, Russia … Continue reading The Lost Peace (Short Version)

March 4, 2024 Cognitive Load Theory An Unpersuasive Attempt to Justify Direct Instruction By Alfie Kohn [For a half-hour interview and discussion with Kohn about this essay, see this video.] A remarkable body of research over many years has demonstrated that the sort of teaching in which students are provided with answers or shown the correct way to do something ... Read More

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October 25, 2023 Aggressive Nostalgia The Dark Side of Pining for the Good Old Days By Alfie Kohn “Time was when parents had their own authority about the rearing of children….There was no back talk and no nonsense….Today we have the child- centered home. In it there is little peace and quiet, and certainly not much respect for, or fear ... Read More

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The post Last Time, the Religious Right Told Us Not Only What We Can Teach but How appeared first on Alfie Kohn.