Quote

Children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions.

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
Make
Directions
Good
Decisions
Following
Learning
Decision
Learn
Making
Children

More quotes by Alfie Kohn

Image
In outstanding classrooms, teachers do more listening than talking, and students do more talking than listening. Terrific teachers often have teeth marks on their tongues.
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
Trying to be number one and trying to do a task well are two different things.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Assessments should compare the performance of students to a set of expectations, never to the performance of other students.
Alfie Kohn
Image
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
Image
Students should not only be trained to live in a democracy when they grow up they should have the chance to live in one today.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Maximum difficulty isn't the same as optimal difficulty.
Alfie Kohn
Image
When was the last time you spent the entire day with only 42 year olds?
Alfie Kohn
Image
Children, after all, are not just adults-in-the-making. They are people whose current needs and rights and experiences must be taken seriously.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Grades dilute the pleasure that a student experiences on successfully completing a task.
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
Punishments erode relationships and moral growth.
Alfie Kohn
Image
If unconditional love and genuine enthusiasm are present, praise isn't necessary. If they're absent, praise won't help.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Don't let anyone tell you that standardized tests are not accurate measures. The truth of the matter is they offer a remarkably precise method for gauging the size of the houses near the school where the test was administered.
Alfie Kohn
Image
There are different kinds of motivation, and the kind matters more than the amount.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Sometimes we have to put our foot down, ... but before we deliberately make children unhappy in order to get them to get into the car, or to do their homework or whatever, we need to weigh whether what we're doing to make it happen is worth the possible strain on our relationship with them.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Someone who thinks well of himself is said to have a healthy self-concept and is envied. Someone who thinks well of his country is called a patriot and is applauded. But someone who thinks well of his species is regarded as hopelessly naïve and is dismissed.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Punishments and rewards are two sides of the same coin and that coin doesn't buy you much.
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