Customer Reviews

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

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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.

As a community college physics professor, I found Kohn's book interesting in some ways but unhelpful in others. He's right on target with his criticisms of bad textbooks, rote memorization, and "drill and kill." However, he forces every issue into his predetermined framework of "us" (people who agree with Kohn) and "them" (the traditionalists). Many of the real issues that cry out for reform are not being realistically addressed by either camp:

(1) The factory model. Both Kohn and the traditionalists implicitly buy in to the factory model of education, in which everybody has to move at the same pace because that's the speed of the conveyer belt. The traditionalists try to speed up the conveyer belt, but can only achieve that by turning learning into an exercise in memorization. Kohn wants to slow down the conveyer belt, condemning bright students to a day in school spent explaining things to their slower peers. In my opinion, the solution is a return to tracking.

(2) Quality of teachers. The traditionalists don't want to address this because improving teacher quality would cost money, which is anathema to their politically conservative values. Kohn hardly mentions it either, which is amazing in a book of this length. In the sciencies, there's a long history of failed reforms of the type Kohn describes, precisely because so few K-12 teachers are qualified to teach science.

(3) Textbooks. Traditionalists don't want to admit how bad textbooks are. Kohn never wants to have a child read a chapter from a textbook -- apparently even in high school? As a boy in the California public school system, I never even had _access_ to a textbook in any subject outside the three R's. At least the traditionalists recognize that schools need more books.

(4) The disorganization of the curriculum. Although Kohn pooh-poohs the popularly accepted idea that fuzzy-headed reformers took over education, there's more than a grain of truth in it. As a boy, I never saw any hint of a system when it came to subjects outside the three R's like science and history. Kohn is correct when he says standards should be far less detailed, but there is indeed a need for standards.

Alfie Kohn's "The Schools Our Children Deserve" helps to make contentious educational insider debates on learning, standards and testing accessible to a general readership. Notably he does this, while making sure to bolster his ideas with copious references to educational research, encouraging more - and, importantly, more honest - appraisal of what research really tells us about learning, schools and the possibilities for public education. Kohn forcefully analyzes the "Tougher Standards" approach dominant in U.S. education reform, seeing it as fundamentally flawed. He describes faulty historical and research perspectives that have led to the standards fixation and describes five specific ways that "Tougher Standards" are troublesome: (1) they create a preoccupation with achievement, constantly focusing students on improving performance, which, according to Kohn, is "not only different from, but often detrimental to, a focus on learning;" (2) the approach favors "Old School teaching," as opposed to progressive, developmental learning, and creates a misguided focus on so-called "basic skills" and "core knowledge;" (3) the movement is "wedded to standardized testing," with teach-to-the-test activities routinely displacing higher level learning opportunities for children; (4) their implementation has created rationales for top-down control, "imposing specific requirements and trying to coerce improvement by specifying exactly what must be taught and learned;" (5) "Tougher Standards," so-called, create assumptions about "rigor" and "challenge" that can be summarized as "harder is better," with the notion that if teaching goes down like distasteful medicine that that is how it should be, regardless of whether it turns large numbers of students off to learning, and doesn't even succeed in providing the "just the facts" kind of education often touted by "basic skills" or "core curriculum" advocates.

Kohn goes on to describe, in a "back to the future" way (citing John Dewey and Jean Piaget as representative educational thinkers) that good, progressive approaches point the way towards something better, something our children deserve. He hopes that there are three ways to convince skeptics: theory, research and examples from practice. Kohn's prose is written in a popular-style, generally stripped of jargon, in order to be more inclusive of parents and community members outside of the education system who may not be privy to many of the coded debates and conflicts that have taken place within the walls of the formal education system. Kohn takes on standardized testing and grading as central culprits in the education reform drama, even outlining social action strategies to oppose current approaches to standardized testing. Alfie Kohn's voice offers a refreshing counterpoint to the sea of unchallenged standards rhetoric, worth listening to, for its attention to both research and a genuine concern for our children's educational future.

When asked what a set of national standards should look like, former U.S. commissioner of education, Harold Howe II, stated, "They should be as vague as possible". Alfie Kohn makes a powerful stance against the use of specific standards and standardized testing in his book, The Schools Our Children Deserve.

Education heads the news around the nation today. Everywhere you hear the cry for tougher standards for teachers and students, and accountability for schools and districts. Headlines scream that American children are falling behind their counterparts in other countries. The solution: an educational system that is `back to basics' and has `tougher standards'. Is this the answer? Alfie Kohn states a resounding `No'.

Mr. Kohn's book takes you on a journey to explore how the American educational system is really doing. He then presents standardized tests for what they are: norm-referenced tests in which 50% of all children taking the test will fail. Kohn dissects how the tests are created and changed from year to year, indicating that if too many students get an answer correct, it is thrown out of the test. He delves into how standardized test scores are published in newspapers, and used by the government and school districts to hold schools and teachers hostage. He shows how the use of such scores are creating an educational community that teaches to the test, is devoid of meaningful learning, and does not address the needs of the individual child.

The Schools Our Children Deserve is written for parents and educators alike. It aims to educate its readers, so that they can become informed participants in the design of the schools our children deserve.

W.Joy Lopez
Pepperdine University Doctoral Student

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.

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, but it places a moral responsibility on each of us to become more informed and involved with the purpose of learning in our schools. Kohn's agenda is simple. He is not a politician looking for votes. He is an advocate for children. Kohn is promoting authentic learning opportunities that respect the natural curiosity and motivation of children.

After reading this book, Kohn places a moral responsibility on all of us to become informed, involved, and pro-active in the development of schools that our children deserve.

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 met by a certain timeframe. The very fact that there is so much rigidity and fixedness in standards makes it altogether difficulty for students and teachers alike to focus on learning. Instead of seizing unique opportunities for discussion and learning, for example, teachers are forced to neglect these occasions and focus on measurable paper output and frequent traditional standardized assessments.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF IMPROVEMENT?

Harder is not necessarily better. This is perhaps the underlying notion and recurring theme expressed throughout the entire book. Kohn makes an important point by discussing the ramifications of assuming that everything must be made harder, challenging, and rigorous for it to improve. As a whole, education and its quality deteriorates and disintegrates. Education is undermined and numbers, statistics, and percentiles are valued. The focus is much greater on the quantity than on the quality of education.

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 ......

The Schools Our Children Deserve is a wonderful tribute to our children. Kohn writes with passion about reforming "traditional education" that follows a model of tougher standards, standardized testing, and top-down delivery or "dumping " of curriculum into students. Kohn takes to task such issues as grades, testing, behavior modification, Direct Instruction, and especially standardized testing. In Kohn's opinion, grades, testing and public reporting and ranking of schools are not necessary to motivate children to learn. He feels that these things promote competitiveness and individualism. Portfolios and narrative summaries on student progress are far more valuable and reliable indicators.

Many traditionalist teachers will be offended, as Kohn does not take a gentle, middle of the road stance on these issues. In his opinion it's all been done wrong. He feels that "traditional" schooling turns learning into a chore. While "progressive" educators create learning environments that make learning engaging and productive. He relies on the words of John Dewey and Jean Piaget to lay foundation for a hands on, project-based, learner centered education.

His arguments are backed by 124 pages of notes, references, and statistical information. As if he has obviously heard the quote, "This sounds good in theory but where is the evidence?" He goes into great detail as to why Whole Language is still the best way to teach kids to read. He endorses integrated curriculum and performance based assessment. Kohn acknowledges that switching gears from the old model to the new will be a difficult transition for students, teachers and parents. Students will think more and do more in a progressive, constructivist learning environment. Teachers will have to give up some control of their classroom environments in order to form a more democratic classroom where the students have a say in what they are learning. Parents will have to give up the notion that their kids have to be taught in the same way they were taught. What comes through in this book is Kohn's obvious regard for children. He understands the unwillingness of most people to gamble on our childrens' education and hence their future. He provides a passionate account of how our educational system can evolve into one that will produce contented, fulfilled, compassionate people with lifelong learning skills.

It will be hard to add anything to the fine reviews already posted here, but here it goes...

As an educator, I was very impressed by the conviction of Kohn's arguments, all of which fly in the face of current demands for "standardized testing" and "teaching the basics" that we hear so often in the public discourse on education. These demands are described by Kohn as "top down coercion," which makes a great deal of sense to me since the people we usually hear praising these pedagogical approaches are politicians, most of whom know absolutely nothing about teaching. If they knew anything they wouldn't be so obsessed with achievement and the administration of poorly conceived tests, the only measures of classroom activity that they can appreciate. According to the contemporary education system, when a particular school demonstrates high test scores they are rewarded with more public education funding. The other part of the equation--the schools who for a myriad of curricular, extracurricular and administrative factors have low scores--are penalized by receiving less funding. Such a merit system, I believe Kohn would argue, is reflected on the level of the students themselves, who often make their way through their public school system and enter college without ever considering if they are actually learning anything (instead of simply attaining high scores). Kohn writes, "If they've internalized the imperative to get good grades, they'll still be looking for the easiest possible courses when they get to college" (31). Does this sound familiar? And people wonder where so many students get the "getting by" mentality toward their education.

Not content to challenge just the politicians who would like to determine how and what children learn, Kohn also critiques researchers such as E. D. Hirsch (65-66). Kohn also marshals an impressive array of new research to support his arguments. One of the most compelling sections of the book is where Kohn, for years a public school teacher, depicts the current state of public education. "We are now living through what will surely be classified as a particularly conservative, even reactionary, era in American education" (6). He sees the current era as a resurgence of "traditional" education models that invoke a "good ol' days" vision of school that parents can more easily appreciate. However, according to Kohn, while the traditional model has been prevalent throughout the twentieth century, it is never blamed for shortcomings in American education: "if students aren't learning effectively, it may be because of the persistence of traditional beliefs and practices..." (11). The daunting challenges that face nontraditional models are the fact that the "tried-and-true" practices, such as the "bunch o' facts" model of teaching, have a loyal constituency that thwarts reforms; and nontraditional education is very difficult to do and sustain (11).

Not content to simply describe the problems, Kohn dedicates the second half of his book describing in detail his vision of a productive nontraditional approach. The brief appendix, "What to Look For in a Classroom", should be Xeroxed and send to every educator in this country. I must also say that Kohn writes with a lively, at times mordant, wit. "The Schools Our Children Deserve" is more than a lot of facts (a "bunch o' facts"), it is really quite funny in places. For example, Kohn attacks the phonics approach to reading: "'Hooked on phonics' is a joke. Who gets hooked on the cr sound?" (71). He characterizes the traditional manner in which teachers conduct class as "chalk 'n talk", "stand and deliver", "the sage on the stage" (or, from the student's point of view, "sit 'n git") (61). My favorite Kohnism is found on page 55: "In the Old School classroom, six-year-olds are handed worksheets and told to fill in the missing letters in one word after another (as in: w_ste of t_me)." !!!

This book offers an uncompromising criticism of traditional education, but the arguments are very well supported and Kohn's vision for a model classroom is a viable, albeit labor-intensive, solution. I wish our elected leaders would read it.