Spotlight

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP September 2015   Who’s Asking? By Alfie Kohn It seems only fitting to explore the role of questions in education by asking questions about the process of doing so. I propose that we start with the customary way of framing this topic and then proceed to questions that are deeper and potentially more subversive of traditional schooling. 1. ... Read More

NEW YORK TIMES October 28, 2018 Rewards Are Still Bad News (25 Years Later) By Alfie Kohn [This is a slightly expanded version of the published article, which was titled “Science Confirms It: People Are Not Pets.”] The field of social psychology is sometimes accused of doing no more than ratifying common sense, so it’s worth paying attention when its ... Read More

NEW YORK TIMES June 16, 2019 Can Everyone Be Excellent? By Alfie Kohn [This is an expanded version of the published article, which was titled “Why Can’t Everyone Get an A?”] I was having dinner with Deborah Meier, the eminent educator, when our conversation turned, as it often does, to school reform. For a generation now, that phrase has come ... Read More

October 15, 2019 It’s Time to Rethink Education Policy: Advice for the Democratic Presidential Candidates By Alfie Kohn More than 50 million children attend public elementary or secondary school in the U.S. The fact that so many voters spend so much time thinking about what happens to their kids in school means that the topic of education — specifically, what ... Read More

January 21, 2020 Autism and Behaviorism New Research Adds to an Already Compelling Case Against ABA By Alfie Kohn When a common practice isn’t necessary or useful even under presumably optimal conditions, it’s time to question whether that practice makes sense at all. For example, if teachers don’t need to give grades even in high school (and if eliminating grades ... Read More

BOSTON GLOBE September 6, 2020 Is Learning “Lost” When Kids Are Out of School? By Alfie Kohn Para leer este artículo en Español, haga clic aquí.   Anguish and even anger are entirely appropriate reactions to the fact that Covid-19 infection rates are still too high in most areas to permit the safe reopening of schools. Not only do many of ... Read More

EDUCATION WEEK September 22, 2021 The Case Against Classroom Management… a Quarter-Century Later By Alfie Kohn I often urge noneducators to ponder the versatility and resilience that have been asked of teachers during the pandemic. Just think about all that’s required to sustain relationships with, let alone educate, dozens of students who have been reduced to so many squares on ... Read More

Foreword to Cooperative Games 2022 Cooperative Games Discovering How Much Fun Competition Isn’t By Alfie Kohn [This essay is adapted from the Foreword to Cooperative Games in Education by Suzanne Lyons (Teachers College Press, 2022)]   The reassuring bromide that “there’s no such thing as a stupid question” can be easily refuted by spending a few minutes with a standardized ... Read More

EDUCATION WEEK September 22, 2025 The Chatbot in the Classroom, the Forklift at the Gym By Alfie Kohn [This is a significantly expanded version of the published article, which was given a different title. To listen to an episode of the podcast Kohn’s Zone based on this article, click here.]                     ... Read More

EDUCATION WEEK October 2, 2024 Less and Less Curious By Alfie Kohn When Susan Engel, a developmental psychologist and teacher-educator at Williams College, decided to spend a few months observing suburban elementary schools, she had a specific goal in mind: to study variations in rates of children’s curiosity. Which kids asked lots of questions? Which classrooms tended to encourage that? ... Read More