Show 197: Alfie Kohn

This interview was originally aired in part on February 2, 2007

Audio here!

From Wikipedia: “Alfie Kohn is an American lecturer and author in the fields of education, psychology and parenting, residing in Belmont, Massachusetts. He is an outspoken critic of American work place management, public education and parenting techniques. Kohn having been an educator himself has written many books on education. Probably the most comprehensive being The Schools our Children Deserve. However he has reserved the most attention from his stance on the trend toward pervasive standardized testing and excessive homework. He has written several books attacking “common sense” notions about competition, rewards, and parenting.

“On the home front, Kohn has challenged parents in Beyond Discipline: from Compliance to Community and Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason to give up the “because I’m the Mom” mode of parenting and switch to a cooperative, loving, guiding form of parenting which places children on more equal footing with parents.”

His latest book is called The Homework Myth.

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Show 192: Fund Drive Show: “Our Children; Our Future”

Fund Drive Show: “Our Children; Our Future”

Audio 1 here!

Audio 2 here!

As the Culture Wars persist in America, what affect are they having on our children? How are parents steering their children in or around the battles between Right and Left and between Fundamentalist Religion and Secularization? And how are our notions of human nature and childrearing itself framing what and how our children learn – in school and in summer camp?

These are the questions we will be asking our very special guests on the next Equal Time for Freethought – our Fund Drive Special – Our Children, Our Future, as we look to understand where we may be going wrong, and how we might move in a more progressive way to secure our children’s futures, and indeed the future of humanity?

Our guests will be Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, directors of the Oscar Nominated documentary, Jesus Camp; noted education specialist and author of numerous books on human nature, education and parenting, Alfie Kohn; and High School Senior Matthew LaClair.

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