Alfie Kohn quotes

Children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions. (Alfie Kohn)
Punishment and reward proceed from basically the same psychological model, one that conceives of motivation as nothing more than the manipulation of behavior. View quote
Alfie Kohn
The value of a book about dealing with children is inversely proportional to the number of times it contains the word behavior. View quote
Alfie Kohn
Very few things are as dangerous as a bunch of incentive-driven individuals trying to play it safe. View quote
Alfie Kohn
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. View quote
Alfie Kohn
Being a team player should not imply a demand for simple obedience and conformity. View quote
Alfie Kohn
To control students is to force them to accommodate to a preestablished curriculum. View quote
Alfie Kohn
Contrary to what you think, your company will be a lot more productive if you refuse to tolerate competition among your employees. View quote
Alfie Kohn
The real alternative to being Number One is not being Number Two; it is dispensing with rankings altogether. View quote
Alfie Kohn
If children feel safe, they can take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, learn to trust, share their feelings, and grow. View quote
Alfie Kohn
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. (Alfie Kohn)
Educational success should be measured by how strong your desire is to keep learning. View quote
Alfie Kohn
Children, after all, are not just adults-in-the-making. They are people whose current needs and rights and experiences must be taken seriously. View quote
Alfie Kohn
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. View quote
Alfie Kohn
If a child is off-task...mayb e the problem is not the child...maybe it's the task. View quote
Alfie Kohn
If unconditional love and genuine enthusiasm are present, praise isn't necessary. If they're absent, praise won't help. View quote
Alfie Kohn
Educators remind us that what counts in a classroom is not what the teacher teaches; it's what the learner learns. View quote
Alfie Kohn
Saying you taught it but the student didn't learn it is like saying you sold it but the customer didn't buy it. View quote
Alfie Kohn
We can't value only what is easy to measure; measurable outcomes may be the least important results of learning. View quote
Alfie Kohn
Whoever said there's no such thing as a stupid question never looked carefully at a standardized test. View quote
Alfie Kohn
Social psychology has found the more you reward people for doing something, the more they tend to lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward. (Alfie Kohn)
To be well-educated is to have the desire as well as the means to make sure that learning never ends. View quote
Alfie Kohn
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. View quote
Alfie Kohn
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. View quote
Alfie Kohn
Do rewards motivate people? Absolutely. They motivate people to get rewards. View quote
Alfie Kohn