Quote

If a child is off-task...mayb e the problem is not the child...maybe it's the task.

Alfie Kohn

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Alfie Kohn
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: October 15
Author
Teacher
Writer
Miami Beach
Florida
Child
Problem
Children
Task
Tasks
Maybe

More quotes by Alfie Kohn

Image
When was the last time you spent the entire day with only 42 year olds?
Alfie Kohn
Image
In education, parody is obsolete.
Alfie Kohn
Image
If unconditional love and genuine enthusiasm are present, praise isn't necessary. If they're absent, praise won't help.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Trying to do well and trying to beat others are two different things. Excellence and victory are conceptually distinct . . . and are experienced differently.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Whoever said there's no such thing as a stupid question never looked carefully at a standardized test.
Alfie Kohn
Image
How we feel about our kids isn't as important as how they experience those feelings and how they regard the way we treat them.
Alfie Kohn
Image
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.
Alfie Kohn
Image
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.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Assessments should compare the performance of students to a set of expectations, never to the performance of other students.
Alfie Kohn
Image
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.
Alfie Kohn
Image
To feel controlled is to lose interest.
Alfie Kohn
Image
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.
Alfie Kohn
Image
If children feel safe, they can take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, learn to trust, share their feelings, and grow.
Alfie Kohn
Image
The overwhelming number of teachers ...are unable to name or describe a theory of learning that underlies what they do.
Alfie Kohn
Image
There are different kinds of motivation, and the kind matters more than the amount.
Alfie Kohn
Image
If faculty would relax their emphasis on grades, this might serve not to lower standards but to encourage an orientation toward learning.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Punishment and reward proceed from basically the same psychological model, one that conceives of motivation as nothing more than the manipulation of behavior.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Do rewards motivate people? Absolutely. They motivate people to get rewards.
Alfie Kohn
Image
Independence is useful, but caring attitudes and behaviors shrivel up in a culture where each person is responsible only for himself.
Alfie Kohn
Image
When we do things that are controlling, whether intentional or not, we are not going to get those long-term outcomes.
Alfie Kohn