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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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Alfie Kohn
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: October 15
Author
Teacher
Writer
Miami Beach
Florida
Things
Tasks
Number
Numbers
Two
Wells
Well
Different
Trying
Task

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Being a team player should not imply a demand for simple obedience and conformity.
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Learning is something students do, NOT something done to students.
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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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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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Unconditional parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason.
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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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In education, parody is obsolete.
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Children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions.
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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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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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If unconditional love and genuine enthusiasm are present, praise isn't necessary. If they're absent, praise won't help.
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Trying to do well and trying to beat others are two different things. Excellence and victory are conceptually distinct . . . and are experienced differently.
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Do rewards motivate people? Absolutely. They motivate people to get rewards.
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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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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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If a child is off-task...mayb e the problem is not the child...maybe it's the task.
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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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Punishments erode relationships and moral growth.
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The race to win turns us all into losers.
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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