I've been wondering lately what Alfie Kohn was up to. And look what landed in my inbox.

[proud2BlibKansan]

Alfie is one of my heroes. Being a senior teacher who was trained long before the 3 week summer quick training for teachers became all the rage, I actually studied Alfie for a semester or so in college. I also got to hear him speak when I was a rookie and still treasure that experience. Alfie's expertise is in competition and how it has ruined our schools. Being an Alfie fan, I began my teaching career determined to help kids achieve intrinsic rewards and learn to love learning for the sake of learning instead of an extrinsic reward. At the time Alfie came to speak here, the Pizza Hut Bookit program had invaded every elementary classroom in the country. I was one of the few teachers who despised that program. But I had kept my mouth shut since I was a rookie and didn't have a lot of confidence in my own personal philosophies. At least not enough to be outspoken in defending what I believed was best for kids.

So when I went to hear Alfie speak, he launched into a tirade against the Bookit program and said the only thing this program was accomplishing for our children was making them fatter. I was sitting there with a group of teachers from my school and my principal and I had to hold myself down to keep from jumping up and cheering. But lo and behold, we got back to school the next day and the principal called a staff meeting where she asked us to please quietly phase out the Bookit program. Next fall, we were told no more Bookit charts in our room.

It was a huge victory.

So just today a friend of mine who is not a teacher sent me this audio recording of Alfie she heard on the radio. He talks about Obama's education agenda and RTTT. Great stuff.

Thank you Alfie!!

His comments begin at the 14:00 mark. About halfway.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4112

[sandnsea]

1. Bookit is an awesome program

Good god, don't encourage kids to read, oh hell no. My kids loved to read and read all the time with bookit.

Then we moved to my current town and they had required extra reading, no rewards, and computer quizes to make sure the kids read the books. Brilliant. They turned at home reading into homework. Fools.

Just because you're a teacher, it doesn't make you right.

[erinlough]

2. Thank you for posting this

I love Alfie Kohn. So sad that we are moving away from common sense.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. He's a god to me

I'm going to stop by a bookstore today and pick up an Alfie Kohn book. He always gives me such hope.

[Lifelong Protester]

4. Love Alfie, have read his books, heard him speak

and wonder, does he have a regular emailing that you get because I would like to be on that list.

As for BookIt, I don't like it either. I don't like tying books to pizza consumption. Or any food.

We have a completely voluntary Accelerated Reader Program at the school where I am principal, and we do give kids recognition and prizes (like gift certificates to the book fair, gift cards for bookstores, posters, book marks, colored pencils, etc.). So to the poster above who loves BookIt, I would just say there are other programs that encourage reading and with some thinking and planning, you can get kids motivated and rewarded for their reading without buying into a corporated scheme that really is about getting the family in to a pizza chain and spending more money than the 'prize' the kid gets.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. I don't know that he has an email list

But he does have a website. http://www.alfiekohn.org/index.php

I hated BookIt because I teach very poor kids. They can't afford to go out to eat and you couldn't just walk in and get that free little pizza. You had to buy pizza first. Also it was just offensive to me because it didn't do anything to build a love of reading or an appreciation of books in my students. The same ones who were avid readers at the beginning of the year were still avid readers at the end of the year. And the ones who didn't like reading were still not reading enough at the end of the year. Also if your class met a certain target you got a pizza party. I made my kids earn the party but eventually realized many of my co-workers just lied and claimed their class had met the target so they could have the pizza party. One year on the first day of school one of my kids even asked if it was true that I would make them really read books to earn the pizza party.

[lostnfound]

6. Have you ever read The Book Whisperer?

It's a wonderful book by a teacher who loves reading who strives to make that love of reading contagious among her classes. If all middle school teachers did that, I think our country would be much smarter.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Sounds great

I'll check it out.

[adnelson60087]

8. Alfie is so correct it hurts. Why can't the politicians

stay the hell out of our classrooms and let us teach?