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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.

Alfie Kohn

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Alfie Kohn
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: October 15
Author
Teacher
Writer
Miami Beach
Florida
School
Swallow
Whole
Testing
Like
Creature
Schools
Horror
Mutated
Creatures
Swelled
Movies
Standardized
Point
Threatens

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Unconditional parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason.
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Assessments should compare the performance of students to a set of expectations, never to the performance of other students.
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If rewards do not work, what does? I recommend that employers pay workers well and fairly and then do everything possible to help them forget about money. A preoccupation with money distracts everyone - employers and employees - from the issues that really matter.
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The Legacy of Behaviorism: Do this and you'll get that.
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Grades dilute the pleasure that a student experiences on successfully completing a task.
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In education, parody is obsolete.
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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.
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We learn most readily, most naturally, most effectively, when we start with the big picture - precisely when the basics don't come first.
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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.
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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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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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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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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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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.
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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, 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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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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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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