Quote

To feel controlled is to lose interest.

Alfie Kohn

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Alfie Kohn
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: October 15
Author
Teacher
Writer
Miami Beach
Florida
Controlled
Lose
Loses
Interest
Inspirational
Feel
Feels

More quotes by Alfie Kohn

Image
Grades are a subjective rating masquerading as an objective evaluation.
Alfie Kohn
Image
In education, parody is obsolete.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Whoever said there's no such thing as a stupid question never looked carefully at a standardized test.
Alfie Kohn
Image
To be well-educated is to have the desire as well as the means to make sure that learning never ends.
Alfie Kohn
Image
We have so much to cover and so little time to cover it. Howard Gardner refers to curriculum coverage as the single greatest enemy of understanding. Think instead about ideas to be discovered.
Alfie Kohn
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? Virtually nothing, say psychologists, sociologists, and others who have studied that question for decade
Alfie Kohn
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
Image
When we do things that are controlling, whether intentional or not, we are not going to get those long-term outcomes.
Alfie Kohn
Image
In a word, learning is decontextualized. We break ideas down into tiny pieces that bear no relation to the whole. We give students a brick of information, followed by another brick, followed by another brick, until they are graduated, at which point we assume they have a house. What they have is a pile of bricks, and they don't have it for long.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Maximum difficulty isn't the same as optimal difficulty.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Being a team player should not imply a demand for simple obedience and conformity.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Independence is useful, but caring attitudes and behaviors shrivel up in a culture where each person is responsible only for himself.
Alfie Kohn
Image
The value of a book about dealing with children is inversely proportional to the number of times it contains the word behavior.
Alfie Kohn
Image
How can we do our best when we are spending our energies trying to make others lose - and fearing that they will make us lose?
Alfie Kohn
Image
Do rewards motivate people? Absolutely. They motivate people to get rewards.
Alfie Kohn
Image
If a child is off-task...mayb e the problem is not the child...maybe it's the task.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Punishments and rewards are two sides of the same coin and that coin doesn't buy you much.
Alfie Kohn
Image
If I offered you a thousand dollars to take off your shoes, you'd very likely accept--and then I could triumphantly announce that 'rewards work.' But as with punishments, they can never help someone develop a *commitment* to a task or action, a reason to keep doing it when there's no longer a payoff.
Alfie Kohn
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 swallow our schools whole.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Those who know they're valued irrespective of their accomplishments often end up accomplishing quite a lot. It's the experience of being accepted without conditions that helps people develop a healthy confidence in themselves, a belief that it's safe to take risks and try new things.
Alfie Kohn