Alfie Kohn

Alfie Kohn Speaking Topics

• Pushed Too Hard: Parenting in an Achievement-Crazy Culture (for parents)

  What does it mean to say we want our kids to be "successful"? In some neighborhoods, that word translates as making higher grades and test scores than other people's children – so they'll be accepted by elite colleges, so they'll get high-paying jobs, so they can... well, what? Erich Fromm once observed that "few parents have the courage to care more for their children's happiness than for their success." Indeed, research shows that affluent, high-achieving students are more likely to suffer from depression – and less likely to value learning for its own sake. Alfie Kohn invites us to rethink basic assumptions about competition, school achievement, and the relationship between how we're raising our kids and how we hope they'll turn out.

• Unconditional Parenting: Beyond Bribes & Threats (for parents)

  Advice for raising children typically comes in two flavors: threats (known euphemistically as "consequences") and bribes ("positive reinforcement"). Either we make kids suffer to teach them a lesson, or we dangle goodies in front of them for doing as they're told. Rewards and punishments are two sides of the same coin, and unfortunately, neither can buy anything more than temporary obedience. Manipulating children's behavior – by means of time-outs, contrived praise, privileges offered, and privileges taken away – can never help them to reflect on the kind of people they want to be. Instead of encouraging kids to take responsibility for their actions, it makes them dependent on rewards and punishments. Rather than promoting generosity and compassion, it leads them to focus on the consequence to themselves of pleasing the adult.

  This presentation, by Alfie Kohn, the author of "Unconditional Parenting," will show why carrots and sticks are not only ineffective but actually counterproductive over the long haul. To raise children who are good learners and good people requires us to abandon strategies that do things to kids, in favor of an approach in which we work with them. And underlying those "working with" strategies is the message that children do not have to earn our approval, that we love them not for what they do but just for who they are.

• Additional Speaking Topics (for parents)
  • Raising Rebels: Helping Kids to Challenge the Status Quo
  • Fear of Spoiling: Rethinking Common Assumptions About Children (and Parenting)

• Beyond Bribes and Threats: Realistic Alternatives to Controlling Students’ Behavior (for educators)

  This workshop, by the author of "Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community," addresses the nonacademic realm of school life – and specifically the ways that discipline or classroom management not only tends to backfire, but actively interferes with the process of helping students grow into responsible, compassionate people. We begin by addressing the problems with trying to manipulate students’ behavior with the use of rewards (including praise) or punishment (euphemistically called “consequences”). Then we dig deeper, looking at how much is lost by focusing on behavior in the first place, how a demand for short-term compliance (which is all that carrots and sticks can ever produce) gets in the way of our long-term goals for kids, and how many problems originate with the assumption that the teacher should be in control of the classroom.

  In the second part of the workshop, participants hear about, see (on videotape), discuss, and make sense of the alternatives:

  • solving problems rather than administering discipline,
  • working with students rather than doing things to them,
  • addressing how “misbehavior” may be due to a curriculum that isn’t engaging,
  • transforming the classroom (and school) into caring communities where students feel they belong, and
  • bringing students in on making decisions about how they want their classroom to be — and how to make that happen.

• Motivation from the Inside Out: Rethinking Rewards, Assessment, and Learning (workshop for educators)

  Rethinking Rewards, Assessment, and Learning

  Most educators, if asked, can explain the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation — between carrots and sticks on the one hand, and love of learning on the other. But many of our daily practices suggest that we fail to understand the importance of the distinction. In this workshop, Alfie Kohn, the author of "Punished By Rewards," shows why we need to stop asking “How motivated are my students?” and start asking “How are my students motivated?”

  That question, in turn, leads to an even more surprising contrast: the distinction between getting students to think about their performance (that is, how well they are doing) and getting them to think about the learning itself (what they are doing). These orientations often pull in opposite directions, which means that too much emphasis on achievement can reduce students’ interest in learning – and cause them to avoid challenging tasks. When the point is to prove how smart you are, there is less inclination to engage deeply with ideas.

  Thus, the problem with standardized testing is not only how bad the tests themselves are, but also how much attention is paid to the results. Even new, “authentic” assessments may backfire if students are constantly led to ask, “How am I doing?” Likewise, research demonstrates that students who have come to focus on grades are likely to think less creatively and come to see learning as a chore. (“Do we have to know this?”)

  This workshop urges teachers and administrators to reconsider basic assumptions about motivation in general and evaluation in particular. Participants are helped to develop strategies that tap children’s natural desire to explore ideas:

  • creating a curriculum that is meaningful and relevant to students’ interests
  • bringing students in on the process of making decisions about their learning
  • transforming classrooms into caring communities where students feel safe and connected to others, and
  • moving away from traditional grading in favor of more constructive and learner-centered approaches to feedback.