The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards"

by Alfie Kohn

Book Overview

In this provocative and well-researched book, Alfie Kohn builds a powerful argument against "teaching to the test" in favor of more child-centered curriculums to raise lifelong learners. Drawing on stories from real classrooms and extensive research, Kohn shows parents, educators, and others how schools can help students explore ideas rather than just fill them with forgettable facts and prepare them for standardized tests. Here, at last,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618083456
• ISBN13: 9780618083459
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.99 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The Other Side of No Child Left Behind (or untested)

Not only am I a teacher, but I am a product of the kind of public school for which Alfie Kohn advocates. We definitely and desperately need this voice in the debate over education. I fully approve of his regime. I was not a terrifically motivated kid, academically speaking, before entering Kindergarten, but during my elementary education grew to become a highly self-motivated and intense learner. I not only had projects and assignments at school (which included research papers and even some traditional math work), but was constantly engaged in projects at home (teaching myself French, extremely engrossed in geography, reading articles of interest from the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, and designing board games with highly complex probabilities.) Many of my classmates had similar experiences. My school was a public school in an unremarkable, middle-class suburb. Kohn's argument results in the kind of education I got up to 6th grade. We took the standardized tests, and did as well or better than neighboring schools on average. What's all the fear about? Read this book. If you are a parent or educator, you REALLY need to read this book.

Nancy Haas, Educational Tech. Doctorial Student , Pepperdine

In light of President Bush's recent signing of a national educational plan that promotes standards and high-stakes testing, The Schools Our Children Deserve offers readers insights into social, economic, and moral consequences of these policies. An easy read with plenty of data and thought provoking questions, Kohn challenges these trends to objectify students and teachers through a careful analysis of the process and consequences of these policies. One of the myths perpetuated by politicians and businesspeople, is that raising school standards and high-stakes testing will improve learning. Kohn examines the historical context of the myth within the system. He offers readers data and research that contradict the myth. He has organized the book to examine the destructive nature of implementing standards based education and high testing through a variety of lens: social, emotional, and economic. With an emphasis on grades and competitive test scores that rank students, teachers, and schools, Kohn argues that education has shifted away from student-centered learning. Schools forced to implement standardize curriculum to support high stakes testing have objectified students and teachers. The consequences of these policies results in a curriculum that lacks authentic context and educational goals that are based on grades and test results.The impact on teachers forced to implement rigid curriculum that changes the role of classroom teachers to classroom technicians whose only responsibility is to transmit facts and data through transmission teaching. The impact on children is a misguided educational experience that may have long term emotional and psychological reprucussions. With an emphasis on scores, rigid and mediocre curriculum is designed to improve tests scores but fail to offer students an authentic and engaging learning experience. The reader is reminded that the cost of focusing on "how well" students are doing verses "what" they're doing results in a disintegration of student's interest and motivation. With an emphasis on student grades and school scores, the purpose of education is no longer about providing an authentic learning experience for child, it is about test scores and ranking. Because of the impact that high stake testing has on schools and children, Kohn takes time to examine the variations in testing formats, inequalities, and failures. Since high-stakes tests are norm-reference, he provides readers with an understanding of how these test are used and the consequences awaiting 50% of the testing population that are predestined to fail. Kohn offers compelling arguments to rethink these practices and the purpose of education. If we want to focus on test scores that rank students, standardized curriculums and high-stakes testing will fill the bill. However, if our goal is to create meaningful, authentic learning experiences for our children, these policies must be challenged and abandoned. This book not only informs the reader, bu

Schools for the love of learning

This is a well argued and researched book (with 95/344 pages of footnotes) that challenges educators to move beyond "traditional classrooms and 'tougher standards'". In Part One, the author persuasively pointed out the 5 fatal flaws in traditional education that relies on extrinsic measures, rote memory and hard work rather than native interest, actual learning, thinking and understanding. The harm of confusing one's self-worth (identity) with performance (behavior) is so in-built into everyone through such a system! Part Two clarifies and illustrates what better education consists of . "The goal is to create a learning experience that arouses and sustains children's curiosity, enriching their capacities and responding to their questions in ways that are deeply engaging." (p.130) It is learner-centred, democratic and cooperative. The author devotes much space to defending Whole Language approach that helps students "learn to read by reading". He has the knack in giving succinct captions, e.g. "What versus How Well", "Harder is Better", "Beyond the Right Answer", "What Replaces Grades"¡K He raises many probing questions and challenges the research evidence quoted by the Old School. He writes with passion and gives wise cautions so that progressive school reforms won't founder. (p. 183) One big hurdle to any educational reform is to have enough teachers who will be able to implement the vision and make education so interesting and appropriate for students. Another reservation is that no matter what our approach is, most probably we'd still get a fair portion of those who do well and many who don't. E.g., cooperative project work can be done by only one diligent member of a team. The author at least arouses much controversy and reflection. Though the author is careful not to impose his own assumptions of the purpose of schools (pp. 117-120), given his competence, I hope he could spell out more clearly in a sequel his whole philosophy of education, the assumptions of the human good and learning that education seeks to serve instead of relying on sporadic quotes ......

Focus on "what they're doing" not "how well they're doing."

In times when students, teachers, administrators, and parents become discouraged at society and government's overwhelming emphasis on accountability, words of hope and encouragement are much needed. A fortunate stroke of serendipity, this book could not have been published at a better time. Alfie Kohn's The Schools Our Children Deserve provides valuable insight, clarifies ambiguities, and sheds light on some of the most controversial issues in education today. Kohn's overall goal and recurrent theme is to redirect our focus on not "how well he/she did today" but "what did he/she do today." Kohn's writing style and prose provides an overall clarity and ease of reading. Although he is adamant in his opinions and observations, he provides undeniable, conclusive, and thought-provoking research evidence throughout the entire text. This foundation of citations and quotes from leading experts in the field (Piaget, Holt, and Dewey to name a few) adds an unquestionable credibility to his ideas and their feasibility. The Schools Our Children Deserve taps into and elaborates on five issues:PREOCCUPATION WITH ACHIEVEMENT Kohn brings to light a detrimental preoccupation with achievement that has been subtly forced upon students. Students often worry about their achievement and focus on the end-result (the grade) and neglect the valuable process of learning. Paradoxically, this obsession with achievement does not provide us with a student with a well-rounded education but one who knows how to get good grades. Kohn calls for a focus on "what they're doing" rather than on "how well they're doing."OLD-SCHOOL TEACHING "Drill and Practice" and/or "Drill and Kill" methods of teaching are slowly resuscitating themselves. Traditional methodology is resurfacing as schools and teachers renew their focus on raising the bar on standards. This renewed focus on "basic skills" or "core knowledge" is actually proving to be detrimental. Ironically, Kohn states this methodology never left but has been present under the guise of different names. STANDARDIZED TESTING If your school's results are published in the newspaper for all to see, and you are scrutinized for failing to meet or exceed expectations, then standardized testing could not possibly be good. A call for higher scores does not fix the educational system, as this is what it is attempting to do (school reform and accountability). Standardized testing, on the contrary, transforms the entire educational community and instills it with fear, anxiety, and shame. Interestingly, Kohn states that there is no other country in the world that requires standardized testing for students. STANDARDS IN THE CLASSROOM Kohn briefly describes the different meanings implied by the word "standards". One reference to standards is the specific set of guidelines devised by districts and curriculum groups. These guidelines are imposed upon classrooms as required knowledge to be me

Excellent book for student teachers, teachers, and parents.

A very powerfully written book by a former teacher turned author and lecturer, Alfie Kohn. Kohn criticizes the theories of behaviorists and traditionalists accusing politicians, parents, and teachers of continuing to 'drill and kill' students on a `'bunch o' facts'. The Old School manner of rote memorization joined now with standardized testing is missing the mark on the urgency to motivate students from 'how they are doing in school' to 'why are they doing what they are doing in school.' Kohn uses a remarkable genre of resources from comparing John Dewey, Jean Piaget, and John Holt to B. F. Skinner, Edward K. Thorndike, and E. D. Hirsch, Jr. Stating various research articles and quotes, Kohn supports his theory that classrooms are not failing the schools the issue is that reform is not being grasped and integrated into the classrooms. Kohn presents the facts of previous educational theories by explaining in two parts, first, of how the schools are missing the mark on motivation, teaching and learning, evaluation, reform, and improvement. Secondly, providing suggestions for teachers and parents to reform whether through internal efforts in the classroom or in the community. Kohn walks the reader through each category defining exactly how his research has shown the schools are presently poorly handling the previously mentioned categories. He then follows up with a blue print on how to overhaul the schools by understanding from the conception of the school the intent while not overlooking the importance of reading, writing, and arithmetic yet allowing a move beyond grades and standardized tests to true achievement and motivation of students.