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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
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Creature
Schools
Horror
Mutated
Creatures
Swelled
Movies
Standardized
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Threatens
School
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Whole
Testing

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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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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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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.
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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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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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The Legacy of Behaviorism: Do this and you'll get that.
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The late W. Edwards Deming, guru of Quality management, once declared, 'The most important things we need to manage can't be measured.' If that’s true of what we need to manage, it should be even more obvious that it’s true of what we need to teach.
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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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If unconditional love and genuine enthusiasm are present, praise isn't necessary. If they're absent, praise won't help.
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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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Whoever said there's no such thing as a stupid question never looked carefully at a standardized test.
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To control students is to force them to accommodate to a preestablished curriculum.
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Maximum difficulty isn't the same as optimal difficulty.
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Punishments and rewards are two sides of the same coin and that coin doesn't buy you much.
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You have to give them unconditional love. They need to know that even if they screw up, you love them. You don't want them to grow up and resent you or, even worse, parent the way you parented them.
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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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There are different kinds of motivation, and the kind matters more than the amount.
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When was the last time you spent the entire day with only 42 year olds?
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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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Children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions.
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