Being a team player should not imply a demand for simple obedience and conformity. Alfie Kohn More Quotes by Alfie Kohn More Quotes From Alfie Kohn Trying to be number one and trying to do a task well are two different things. Alfie Kohn numbers trying two Very few things are as dangerous as a bunch of incentive-driven individuals trying to play it safe. Alfie Kohn risk play trying Punishments and rewards are two sides of the same coin and that coin doesn't buy you much. Alfie Kohn punishment two-sides school Standardized testing has swelled and mutated, like a creature in one of those old horror movies, to the point that it now threatens to swallow our schools whole. Alfie Kohn standardized-testing horror school When we do things that are controlling, whether intentional or not, we are not going to get those long-term outcomes. Alfie Kohn outcomes long school Assessments should compare the performance of students to a set of expectations, never to the performance of other students. Alfie Kohn assessment students expectations Trying to do well and trying to beat others are two different things. Excellence and victory are conceptually distinct . . . and are experienced differently. Alfie Kohn victory excellence two If rewards do not work, what does? I recommend that employers pay workers well and fairly and then do everything possible to help them forget about money. A preoccupation with money distracts everyone - employers and employees - from the issues that really matter. Alfie Kohn issues doe pay Some who support [more] coercive strategies assume that children will run wild if they are not controlled. However, the children for whom this is true typically turn out to be those accustomed to being controlled— those who are not trusted, given explanations, encouraged to think for themselves, helped to develop and internalize good values, and so on. Control breeds the need for more control, which is used to justify the use of control. Alfie Kohn running children thinking The late W. Edwards Deming, guru of Quality management, once declared, 'The most important things we need to manage can't be measured.' If that’s true of what we need to manage, it should be even more obvious that it’s true of what we need to teach. Alfie Kohn quality important needs If faculty would relax their emphasis on grades, this might serve not to lower standards but to encourage an orientation toward learning. Alfie Kohn faculty relax might The race to win turns us all into losers. Alfie Kohn loser race winning To feel controlled is to lose interest. Alfie Kohn interest feels inspirational It's not just that humiliating people, of any age, is a nasty and disrespectful way of treating them. It's that humiliation, like other forms of punishment, is counterproducti ve. 'Doing to' strategies - as opposed to those that might be described as 'working with' - can never achieve any result beyond temporary compliance, and it does so at a disturbing cost. Alfie Kohn punishment age people John Dewey reminded us that the value of what students do 'resides in its connection with a stimulation of greater thoughtfulness, not in the greater strain it imposes. Alfie Kohn thoughtfulness connections students When was the last time you spent the entire day with only 42 year olds? Alfie Kohn last-time lasts years In short, with each of the thousand-and-one problems that present themselves in family life, our choice is between controlling and teaching, between creating an atmosphere of distrust and one of trust, between setting an example of power and helping children to learn responsibility, between quick-fix parenting and the kind that's focused on long-term goals. Alfie Kohn responsibility teaching children The Legacy of Behaviorism: Do this and you'll get that. Alfie Kohn behaviorism legacy The legendary statistical consultant W. Edwards Deming, . . . has called the system by which merit is appraised and rewarded 'the most powerful inhibitor to quality and productivity in the Western world' . . . it is simply unfair to the extent that employees are held responsible for what are, in reality, systemic factors that are beyond their control. Alfie Kohn quality powerful reality Grades dilute the pleasure that a student experiences on successfully completing a task. Alfie Kohn pleasure tasks students
