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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.

Alfie Kohn

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Alfie Kohn
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: October 15
Author
Teacher
Writer
Miami Beach
Florida
Today
Live
Trained
Students
Grow
Democracy
Grows
Chance

More quotes by Alfie Kohn

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In education, parody is obsolete.
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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.
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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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When was the last time you spent the entire day with only 42 year olds?
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We can't value only what is easy to measure measurable outcomes may be the least important results of learning.
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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.
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If a child is off-task...mayb e the problem is not the child...maybe it's the task.
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To be well-educated is to have the desire as well as the means to make sure that learning never ends.
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The Legacy of Behaviorism: Do this and you'll get that.
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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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Being a team player should not imply a demand for simple obedience and conformity.
Alfie Kohn
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
Alfie Kohn
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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.
Alfie Kohn
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To control students is to force them to accommodate to a preestablished curriculum.
Alfie Kohn
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Trying to be number one and trying to do a task well are two different things.
Alfie Kohn
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When test scores go up, we should worry, because of how poor a measure they are of what matters, and what you typically sacrifice in a desperate effort to raise scores.
Alfie Kohn
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When we do things that are controlling, whether intentional or not, we are not going to get those long-term outcomes.
Alfie Kohn