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The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards" Hardcover – September 7, 1999

by Alfie Kohn (Author)

49 customer reviews

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In this “lively, provocative and well-researched book” (Theodore Sizer), AlTe Kohn builds a powerful argument against the “back to basics” philosophy of teaching and simplistic demands to “raise the bar.” Drawing on stories from real classrooms and extensive research, Kohn shows parents, educators, and others interested in the debate how schools can help students explore ideas rather than filling them with forgettable facts and preparing them for standardized tests.
Here at last is a book that challenges the two dominant forces in American education: an aggressive nostalgia for traditional teaching (“If it was bad enough for me, it’s bad enough for my kids”) and a heavy-handed push for Tougher Standards.

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

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Product Details

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (September 7, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0395940397
ISBN-13: 978-0395940396
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,590,615 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2184 in Books > Education & Teaching > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Assessment
- #2463 in Books > Education & Teaching > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Reform & Policy
- #3183 in Books > Education & Teaching > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Administration

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Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars

5 star		49%
4 star		25%
3 star		10%
2 star		6%
1 star		10%

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 96 people found the following review helpful

Excellent book for student teachers, teachers, and parents.

By Renée Cole (rcole@austinc.edu) on November 3, 1999

Format: Hardcover

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.

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41 of 46 people found the following review helpful

rigid "us" versus "them" outlook

By Benjamin Crowell on June 3, 2000

Format: Hardcover

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.Read more ›

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46 of 53 people found the following review helpful

Kohn Opens the Standards Debate and Issues a Call to Action

By K. Rocap on February 13, 2000

Format: Hardcover

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.Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Four Stars

Nice read...easy to follow and understand. Kohn makes some great points...hard to argue!

Published 29 days ago by David Madden

Sadly, there is very little that is useful in his books. Instead it's...

This writer does not have a teaching license, and has no teaching experience whatsoever. There is little substance to his writing, as instead the point seems to be to make a silly... Read more

Published 2 months ago by artfeature

Alfie Kohn brings a lot of good points, backed by science

Alfie Kohn brings a lot of good points, backed by science. He shows how grades negatively affect student learning. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Gourd00

Alfie has one note and he gets paid very well for singing it.

Same old things people have been saying for years.

Published 9 months ago by Pinkyrose

Ideas that need to be listened

Ideas that need to be listened to

Published 16 months ago by HDFL

THe book is okay. THe author is prejudical.

Published 17 months ago by Cynthia Brownlee

Meaty subject matter

This is not a light read but covers some thought provoking material especially for parents who may need a eye opener to what is really happening in the mainstream education... Read more

Published on February 12, 2013 by Andrea

Good book!

If you wonder why our schools and teachers are critisized and blamed for things not going well for all students this is a book that will make things clear for you.

Published on January 18, 2013 by SHARON KANNIAINEN

Great Suggestions Probably Falling on Mostly Deaf Ears

This book is filled with great examples of what needs to be done to break away from the form of traditional education that no longer works...if it ever truly did. Read more

Published on December 20, 2012 by James J. DelViscio

Alfie Kohn book-Schools Our Children Deserve

The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards" by Alfie Kohn is an excellent book about improving education. Read more

Published on October 5, 2012 by Betty