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Punishments erode relationships and moral growth.

Alfie Kohn

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Alfie Kohn
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: October 15
Author
Teacher
Writer
Miami Beach
Florida
Erode
Punishment
Relationships
Growth
Moral
Punishments

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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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If unconditional love and genuine enthusiasm are present, praise isn't necessary. If they're absent, praise won't help.
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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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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.
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When was the last time you spent the entire day with only 42 year olds?
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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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Grades dilute the pleasure that a student experiences on successfully completing a task.
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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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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.
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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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Very few things are as dangerous as a bunch of incentive-driven individuals trying to play it safe.
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Learning is something students do, NOT something done to students.
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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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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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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.
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Children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions.
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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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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 race to win turns us all into losers.
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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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