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The overwhelming number of teachers ...are unable to name or describe a theory of learning that underlies what they do.

Alfie Kohn

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Alfie Kohn
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: October 15
Author
Teacher
Writer
Miami Beach
Florida
Learning
Overwhelming
Name
Describe
Names
Teachers
Number
Teaching
Theory
Teacher
Underlies
Numbers
Unable

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The value of a book about dealing with children is inversely proportional to the number of times it contains the word behavior.
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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.
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To control students is to force them to accommodate to a preestablished curriculum.
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Children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions.
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Most of us would protest that of course we love our children without any strings attached. But what counts is how things look from the perspective of the children
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Grades dilute the pleasure that a student experiences on successfully completing a task.
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Children, after all, are not just adults-in-the-making. They are people whose current needs and rights and experiences must be taken seriously.
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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.
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Each time I visit such a classroom, where the teacher is more interested in creating a democratic community than in maintaining her position of authority, I’m convinced all over again that moving away from consequences and rewards isn’t just realistic - it’s the best way to help kids grow into good learners and good people.
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Punishments erode relationships and moral growth.
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Unconditional parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason.
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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?
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If faculty would relax their emphasis on grades, this might serve not to lower standards but to encourage an orientation toward learning.
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How we feel about our kids isn't as important as how they experience those feelings and how they regard the way we treat them.
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Independence is useful, but caring attitudes and behaviors shrivel up in a culture where each person is responsible only for himself.
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Maximum difficulty isn't the same as optimal difficulty.
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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
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Do rewards motivate people? Absolutely. They motivate people to get rewards.
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Trying to be number one and trying to do a task well are two different things.
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Being a team player should not imply a demand for simple obedience and conformity.
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