The Homework Myth

How to fix schools so kids really learn.

by Alfie Kohn

What Makes a Terrific Parent

If you decided to have a child, presumably it was because you wanted to be a parent and anticipated that the experience would be fulfilling. You did it for you. Read More

Criticizing (Common Criticisms of) Praise

Over the last few years I've had the odd experience of seeing my work cited with approval by people whose views on the issue in question are diametrically opposed to my own. The issue I have in mind is praise. I'm troubled by it, as are the people who quote me, but for very different reasons. Read More

The Risks & Potential of Required Community Service

While a service requirement hardly guarantees any benefits—which are contingent, among other things, on the extent to which your staff and the students themselves take the activities seriously—neither does it preclude such benefits. Much depends on how (and by whom) the activities are designed. Read More

Five Not-So-Obvious Propositions About Play

Children should have plenty of opportunities to play. Even young children have too few such opportunities these days, particularly in school settings. Read More

Whoever Said There’s No Such Thing as a Stupid Question Never Looked Carefully at a Standardized Test

It can't be repeated often enough: Standardized tests are very poor measures of the intellectual capabilities that matter most, and that's true because of how they're designed, not just because of how they're used. Like other writers, I've relied on arguments and research to make this point. But sometimes a telling example can be more effective. So here's an item that ap Read More

What We Don't Know About Our Students - And Why We Don't Know It

There's a scene near the beginning of Small Change (also known as Pocket Money), Truffaut's übercharming movie about children of all ages, in which a teacher makes each of her students recite a passage from a Molière play -- a test of both memory and dramatic skill. The teacher is especially tough on one boy who chants the lines in a leaden monotone: She stands next to h Read More

Teaching Strategies That Work! (Just Don’t Ask “Work to Do What?”)

So here's the dilemma for someone who writes about education: Certain critical cautions and principles need to be mentioned again and again because policy makers persist in ignoring them, yet faithful readers will eventually tire of the repetition. Read More

Why Are Some People Always Late? (And Other Human Puzzles)

I often find myself unable to let go of questions that don't seem to give most people any pause at all. For example, why do we cry at weddings? Read More

How to Write an Article About Current Parenting Styles

1. To maximize the chance of getting your article published, be careful to make exactly the same argument that shows up in every other article on the topic. Read More

Alfie Kohn writes about behavior and education. His books include Feel-Bad Education, The Homework Myth, and What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated?

more...