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There are different kinds of motivation, and the kind matters more than the amount.

Alfie Kohn

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Alfie Kohn
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: October 15
Author
Teacher
Writer
Miami Beach
Florida
Matters
Motivation
Amount
Matter
Different
Kind
Kinds

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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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Educational success should be measured by how strong your desire is to keep learning.
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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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Do rewards motivate people? Absolutely. They motivate people to get rewards.
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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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Whoever said there's no such thing as a stupid question never looked carefully at a standardized test.
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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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Very few things are as dangerous as a bunch of incentive-driven individuals trying to play it safe.
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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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Punishments and rewards are two sides of the same coin and that coin doesn't buy you much.
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Children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions.
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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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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.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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