After spending an hour and a half with Alfie Kohn at the Risky Business Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, I am questioning why do teachers continue to reinvent the wheel? Don't we all know that students learn differently today? Why do some teachers still try to teach like they taught in the 80's? Are we truly preparing students for the future if we are living in the past?
I love the radical ideas of Alfie Kohn! I met him during the first year of my career at another at-risk conference and bought every book he was offering. I have poured over the books: The School Our Children Deserve, Punished by Rewards, and Beyond Discipline; relishing the idea of no more grades, no more punitive consequences for my students, students guiding their own learning and making it relevant towards their life. I was not taught any of these ideas in any of my teacher preparation classes. They focused more on behaviorism, requiring homework, classroom management techniques, etc. never fully understanding why I needed all that "stuff" and especially with no plans to use much of it in my classroom.
It was refreshing to see Alfie Kohn again, now that I have some classroom experience under my belt and can speak more from experience than ideals. I still do not use behaviorism in my classroom, unless required to from district or building expectation. I still struggle with having to give my students a numeric grade that tells them how much or how well they learned. I continue to teach in a very constructive manner, letting my students guide their own learning and setting up my classroom so that students are in charge of almost all aspects of it. This works for me and the type of student that I am teaching. Having only taught in an alternative setting, I wonder if it would work in a traditional setting. I can easily accommodate 12 learning styles into a block schedule, but can a traditional teacher incorporate 30 learning styles into a 40 minute class time? I agree with Alfie Kohn's vision of where education needs to go, but wonder what has to change first, the teacher or the system? If the teachers want to change, but are not supported by the system, can they change? If the system, or the district, wants to change, but the teachers are unwilling to change from something they are comfortable doing and refuse to change, can anything change??
Still, I don't believe Alfie Kohn's advice is the only answer, I do believe he is radical enough to make us all think about what we are doing in the classroom and try to make some changes to help our students realize their full potential. The most important thing to remember is that they are a human being with emotions, dreams, heartaches, trials and tribulations. They deserve to be recognized, respected and loved for who they are and what they can offer.
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