Alfie Kohn

Education Critic, Author, Parenting Expert

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Boston, MA, USA
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Speaker profile last updated by AAE Talent Team on 12/16/2024.

Alfie Kohn Speaking Topics

  • Beyond Bribes and Threats: Realistic Alternatives to Controlling Students’ Behavior

  • Motivation from the Inside Out: Rethinking Rewards, Assessment, and Learning

  • Pushed Too Hard: Parenting in an Achievement-Crazy Culture

    What does it mean to say we want our kids to be "successful"? In some neighborhoods, that word translates as making higher grades and test scores than other people's children – so they'll be accepted by elite colleges, so they'll get high-paying jobs, so they can... well, what? Erich Fromm once observed that "few parents have the courage to care more for their children's happiness than for their success." Indeed, research shows that affluent, high-achieving students are more likely to suffer from depression – and less likely to value learning for its own sake. Alfie Kohn invites us to rethink basic assumptions about competition, school achievement, and the relationship between how we're raising our kids and how we hope they'll turn out.

  • Unconditional Parenting: Beyond Bribes & Threats

    Advice for raising children typically comes in two flavors: threats (known euphemistically as "consequences") and bribes ("positive reinforcement"). Either we make kids suffer to teach them a lesson, or we dangle goodies in front of them for doing as they're told. Rewards and punishments are two sides of the same coin, and unfortunately, neither can buy anything more than temporary obedience. Manipulating children's behavior – by means of time-outs, contrived praise, privileges offered, and privileges taken away – can never help them to reflect on the kind of people they want to be. Instead of encouraging kids to take responsibility for their actions, it makes them dependent on rewards and punishments. Rather than promoting generosity and compassion, it leads them to focus on the consequence to themselves of pleasing the adult.

    This presentation, by Alfie Kohn, the author of Unconditional Parenting, will show why carrots and sticks are not only ineffective but actually counterproductive over the long haul. To raise children who are good learners and good people requires us to abandon strategies that do things to kids, in favor of an approach in which we work with them. And underlying those "working with" strategies is the message that children do not have to earn our approval, that we love them not for what they do but just for who they are.

  • The (Progressive) Schools Our Children Deserve

    Our knowledge of how children learn – and how schools can help – has come a long way in the last few decades. Unfortunately, most schools have not: They're still more about memorizing facts and practicing isolated skills than understanding ideas from the inside out; they still exclude students from any meaningful decision-making role; and they still rely on grades, tests, homework, lectures, worksheets, competition, punishments, and rewards. Alfie Kohn explores the alternatives to each of these conventional practices, explaining why progressive education isn't just a realistic alternative but one that's far more likely to help kids become critical thinkers and lifelong learners.

  • Teaching Children to Care

    We can't blame "human nature" when children act aggressively or selfishly. Extensive research has shown that these qualities are no more natural than the impulse toward empathy or generosity. But how do we nourish those positive inclinations and help children to act on their capacity to care? Alfie Kohn, author of The Brighter Side of Human Nature, discusses the roots of prosocial attitudes and actions, and invites educators to think about what promotes children's concern about others' well-being. He urges activities (and a curriculum) that enhance understanding of how others see the world, as well as a commitment to replace isolation and competition with a feeling of community in the classroom and school.

Alfie Kohn Videos

  • Alfie Kohn FULL INTERVIEW
    Alfie Kohn and Meghan Ashburn discuss behaviorism, neurodiversity, unconditional parenting, reward systems, ABA, and so much more in this interview...
  • Interview with Alfie Kohn | From Peter Joseph's Revolution Now! Podcast Ep. 54
    Peter Joseph interviews renowned author and educator Alfie Kohn about the pervasive role of competition in society. Kohn challenges the widely...
  • Alfie Kohn - Symposium On Our Youngest Citizens
    Alife Kohn at Children's Museum of Tacoma's Symposium On Our Youngest Citizens, April 19 2019 at University of Washington Tacoma.

Alfie Kohn Books

  • Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason
    Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason
  • What Does it Mean to Be Well Educated? And Other Essays on Standards, Grading, and Other Follies
    What Does it Mean to Be Well Educated? And Other Essays on Standards, Grading, and Other Follies
  • The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and
    The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards"
  • Feel-Bad Education: And Other Contrarian Essays on Children and Schooling
    Feel-Bad Education: And Other Contrarian Essays on Children and Schooling
  • The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing
    The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing
  • Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community
    Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community
  • Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason
    Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason
  • What Does it Mean to Be Well Educated? And Other Essays on Standards, Grading, and Other Follies
    What Does it Mean to Be Well Educated? And Other Essays on Standards, Grading, and Other Follies
  • The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and
    The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards"
  • Feel-Bad Education: And Other Contrarian Essays on Children and Schooling
    Feel-Bad Education: And Other Contrarian Essays on Children and Schooling
  • The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing
    The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing
  • Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community
    Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community

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Alfie Kohn is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics such as Beyond Bribes and Threats: Realistic Alternatives to Controlling Students’ Behavior, Motivation from the Inside Out: Rethinking Rewards, Assessment, and Learning, Pushed Too Hard: Parenting in an Achievement-Crazy Culture, Unconditional Parenting: Beyond Bribes & Threats, The (Progressive) Schools Our Children Deserve and Teaching Children to Care. The estimated speaking fee range to book Alfie Kohn for your event is $5,000 - $10,000. Alfie Kohn generally travels from Boston, MA, USA and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Gever Tulley, Anthony Rao, Kanya Balakrishna, Erin Gruwell and James Garbarino. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling Alfie Kohn for an upcoming live or virtual event.

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