May 12, 2015 The Wrong Way to Get People to Do the Right Thing By Alfie Kohn [This essay is adapted from The Brighter Side of Human Nature, which contains the complete references to research cited here.] Our culture may sing the praises of the heroically selfless, yet it also seems to disdain the very idea of helping. We ... Read More
Blog Posts
June 2, 2015 Learning as a Sandwich Revisiting the Ingenuity (and Radicalism) of K-W-L By Alfie Kohn I believe it was Dale Carnegie who first counseled public speakers to “tell the audience what you’re going to say . . . say it . . . then tell them what you’ve said.” This advice, which presumably appeared in his book How ... Read More
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
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
October 4, 2015 The Back-to-School-Night Speech We’d Like to Hear* By Alfie Kohn This imagined presentation by a principal is also the first episode of the podcast Kohn’s Zone. You can listen to it here. 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 ... Read More
October 31, 2015 All Aboard the LeaderShip Reflections on Goals and Catchphrases By Alfie Kohn If you’re going to lead a school or other organization, it might be smart to give some thought to what it means to be a good leader. But that fact doesn’t explain why some schools proudly announce that they train their students — every last ... Read More
December 18, 2015 What ‘No Child Left Behind’ Left Behind By Alfie Kohn The metamorphosis of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) from No Child Left Behind (NCLB) into the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is being hailed as a historic triumph of bipartisan compromise (HTBC). Why, we haven’t seen such lopsided approval votes in Congress since . ... Read More
January 29, 2016 “Your Hand’s Not Raised? Too Bad: I’m Calling on You Anyway” By Alfie Kohn Doctors in training call it “pimping.” A medical student or junior resident is abruptly put on the spot, sometimes during patient rounds, as an instructor fires off difficult questions about anatomy, diagnostic protocols, or surgical procedures.[1] The practice is defended in pretty ... Read More
March 12, 2016 The Overselling of Ed Tech By Alfie Kohn Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that the idea of using digital technology in the classroom tends to be either loved or hated. After all, anything that’s digital consists only of ones or zeroes. By contrast, my own position is somewhere in the middle, a location where I don’t often ... Read More
April 23, 2016 Why Lots of Love (or Motivation) Isn’t Enough By Alfie Kohn I get a kick out of spotting invisible threads that connect disparate theories and lines of research. Sometimes I’ll even notice a pattern (after the fact) in my own essays about different topics — which can be gratifying until I realize that the common denominator is ... Read More