Alfie Kohn

Some who support [more] coercive strategies assume that children will run wild if they are not controlled. However, the children for whom this is true typically turn out to be those accustomed to being controlled— those who are not trusted, given explanations, encouraged to think for themselves, helped to develop and internalize good values, and so on. Control breeds the need for more control, which is used to justify the use of control.

Students should not only be trained to live in a democracy when they grow up; they should have the chance to live in one today.

Children, after all, are not just adults-in-the-making. They are people whose current needs and rights and experiences must be taken seriously.

In some suburban schools, the curriculum is chock-full of rigorous A.P. courses and the parking lot glitters with pricey SUVs, but one doesn't have to look hard to find students who are starving themselves, cutting themselves, or medicating themselves, as well students who are taking out their frustrations on those who sit lower on the social food chain.

If a child is off-task...mayb e the problem is not the child...maybe it's the task.

How can we do our best when we are spending our energies trying to make others lose - and fearing that they will make us lose?

Each time I visit such a classroom, where the teacher is more interested in creating a democratic community than in maintaining her position of authority, I’m convinced all over again that moving away from consequences and rewards isn’t just realistic - it’s the best way to help kids grow into good learners and good people.

The overwhelming number of teachers ...are unable to name or describe a theory of learning that underlies what they do.