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Educators remind us that what counts in a classroom is not what the teacher teaches it’s what the learner learns.

Alfie Kohn

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Alfie Kohn
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: October 15
Author
Teacher
Writer
Miami Beach
Florida
Educator
Learns
Counts
Classroom
Remind
Teaches
Learner
Teacher
Educators
Teach
Learners

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People will typically be more enthusiastic where they feel a sense of belonging and see themselves as part of a community than they will in a workplace in which each person is left to his own devices
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To control students is to force them to accommodate to a preestablished curriculum.
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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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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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Very few things are as dangerous as a bunch of incentive-driven individuals trying to play it safe.
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Grades are a subjective rating masquerading as an objective evaluation.
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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.
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To feel controlled is to lose interest.
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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.
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Punishment and reward proceed from basically the same psychological model, one that conceives of motivation as nothing more than the manipulation of behavior.
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Educational success should be measured by how strong your desire is to keep learning.
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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 children feel safe, they can take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, learn to trust, share their feelings, and grow.
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Children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions.
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A preoccupation with achievement is not only different from, but often detrimental to, a focus on learning. Thoughts and emotions while performing an action are more important in determining subsequent engagement than the actual outcome of that action.
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Trying to be number one and trying to do a task well are two different things.
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Maximum difficulty isn't the same as optimal difficulty.
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The overwhelming number of teachers ...are unable to name or describe a theory of learning that underlies what they do.
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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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Saying you taught it but the student didn't learn it is like saying you sold it but the customer didn't buy it.
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