Find Schooling Beyond Measure And Other Unorthodox Essays About Education Chronicled By Alfie Kohn Available As Publication

a lot of this book is from Kohn's blog posts, I appreciated the organization of ideas and ability to highlight and underline as I read, Like most of his work, this allowed me to really think about what I am doing and whether it's best for me or really what's best for kids, The book raises several good questions such as "when my classroom is quiet, does it mean because the students are truly learning or because they're finally being compliant", The problem is that, as it raises all these very important questions, the true challenge for an educator is to find the teaching path that works for said educator and classroom.
None of these onesizefitsallsolution, scripted curriculum, standardized common core created by big businesses and their foundations without the help of any teachers, parents, nor students, Of course I loved this book, Alfie Kohn wrote it! Read this for a class assignment, My biggest complaint is that while Kohn raises intriguing points about education, some of which I do agree with, he doesnt offer solutions to the problem, Prima bundel met essays over onderwijs die soms nogal kort door de bocht gaan, maar vaker nog je aan het denken doen zetten over het "waarom" van keuzes die we met elkaar gemaakt hebben in het onderwijs.
A nicely organized anthology of the most provocative posts and articles by Alfie Kohn from the past four years, Although you

can access any one of these pieces online, and the author didn't add anything new to this text, it is still worth owning and reading for any educator.
I'm predisposed to like this book because I have read a number of Kohn's essays and blogs online and it's good to have them collected all in one place.
Kohn has an easytoread and witty writing style, None of these essays is very long, but they all build a cogent argument and pack a punch, I especially appreciate his ability to think beyond sound bites and to question the meaning of the latest education fads, His takedown of the widespread traditional interpretation of the famous "marshmallow test" "What Waiting for a Second Marshmallow Doesn't Prove" is especially incisive, And while there isn't anything particularly new in "Remember When We Had High Standards Neither Do I," there is even less that's new or interesting about the widespread bogus nostalgia for a golden educational era that never was, which he convincingly debunks.


As a former classroom teacher himself, Kohn isn't afraid to admit that he's made mistakes poignantly in "What We Don't Know About Our Studentsand Why", and his respectful attitude towards teaching as a profession, and teachers as a group, is refreshing.
While his point of view and policy prescriptions may sometimes be viewed as liberal, he is a bipartisan critic of national "school reform" policies, taking both the Obama and Bush administrations to task for an overemphasis on standardized tests and a misunderstanding of what learning is and what good teachers can do.


I especially loved the title of the essay called "Whoever Said There's No Such Thing as a Stupid Question Never Looked Carefully at a Standardized Test, " Unfortunately that memorable title heads one of the weaker essays in the collection, Kohn's analysis of a math question from a Massachusetts state exam is more muddled than the question itself, As far as I can tell, he didn't understand the algorithm in the problem and got the answer wrong himself, The readers of this essay in "Psychology Today," where it also appeared, make good points about the value of algorithms and mathematical language in the comments section: "Math is abstract, and it is primarily a language.
Working fluently with that language, both in communicating and in being communicated to, is one of the primary ends of mathematical education, "

I am sympathetic to many of the policy suggestions in this book, but sometimes they strike me as just shouting into the wind, One of my favorite of these essays was Chapter, "'Ready to Learn' Means Easier to Educate, " Its point is that educational institutions, with their endless testing and selective admissions criteria, are effectively excluding those who most need the education they offer, It calls into question the entire purpose of education in our society: is it to improve the performance of students who are strugglingto actually educate peopleor merely to select and rubber stamp applicants they think are "ready to succeed" While I think Kohn's interpretation is correct here, I don't think this essay is going to change much about the admissions industry.
A number of essays in this book, from "The Case Against Grades" to "Homework: An Unnecessary Evil," to "Why the Best Teachers Don't Give Tests" share this kind of impractical idealism.


And yet. A case against homework is making some small inroads in the culture at large, especially in elementary school, Angela Duckworth, who coined the term "grit," has responded to the critiques with a more nuanced and helpful view of the subject, Prestigious colleges from Reed College to Brown University are implementing unconventional assessment policies similar to those described here, Kohn's last two essays, "Change by Decree" he is against it and "Encouraging Courage" he is for it, are both inspirational and humble, His last sentence of "Change by Decree," while presented in the context of educational policy, could apply to almost any important societal issue: "People don't resist change, They resist being changed. " This book provides examples of how education could change for the better, if we choose, In this collection of provocative articles and blog posts originally published betweenand, Alfie Kohn challenges the conventional wisdom about topics ranging from how lowincome children are taught, to whether American schools have really fallen behind those in other countries.
Why, he asks, do we assume learning can be reduced to numerical data What leads us to believe that "standardsbased" grading will eliminate the inherent limitations of marks Or that training students to show more "grit" makes sense if the real trouble is with the tasks they've been given to do



Kohn's analytical styleincisive yet accessibleis brought to bear on bigpicture policy issues as well as smallscale classroom interactions.
He looks carefully at research about homework, play, the supposed benefits of practice, parent involvement in education, and summer learning lossdiscovering in each case that what we've been led to believe doesn't always match what the studies actually say.
Kohn challenges us to reconsider the goals that underlie our methods, to explore the often troubling values that inform talk about everything from the disproportionate enthusiasm for STEM subjects to claims made for more "effective" teaching strategies.




During these dark days in which teachers are viewed as expendable testprep technicians, and "global economic competitiveness" eclipses what children need, Kohn calls for us to summon the courage to act on what we already know makes sense.




Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting, The author of thirteen books and scores of articles, he lectures at education conferences and universities as well as to parent groups and corporations, Kohn's criticisms of competition and rewards have been widely discussed and debated, and he has been described in Time magazine as "perhaps the country's most outspoken critic of education's fixation on grades and test scores.
" Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting, The author of fourteen books and scores of articles, he lectures at education conferences and universities as well as to parent groups and corporations, Kohns criticisms of competition and rewards have been widely discussed and debated, and he has been described in Time magazine as perhaps the countrys most outspoken critic of educations fixation on grades and test scores.
Kohn lives actually in the Boston area with his wife and two children, and virtually at sitelink www, alfiekohn. org. Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting, The author of fourteen books and scores of articles, he lectures at education conferences and universities as well as to parent groups and corporations, Kohn's criticisms of competition and rewards have been widely discussed and debated, and he has been described in Time magazine as "perhaps the country's most outspoken critic of education's fixation on grades and test scores.
"Kohn lives actually in the Boston area with his wife and two children, and virtually at sitelink www, alfiekohn. org. sitelink.