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| What Does it Mean to Be Well Educated? And Other Essays on Standards, Grading, and Other Follies | 
 enlarge | Author: Alfie Kohn
Publisher: Beacon Press
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy Used: $2.88
You Save: $13.12 (82%)
New (36) Used (34) from $2.88
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 54991
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.5
ISBN: 0807032670
Dewey Decimal Number: 370.973
UPC: 046442032674
EAN: 9780807032671
ASIN: 0807032670
Publication Date: May 15, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Over 600,000 Feedbacks Posted!!! Great Buy!!!*** Never Used*** May Have a Publisher's Mark~We have over 3,500,000 Books Sold!!!
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-6 of 6 | | « PREV | | |
 A MUST Read for Anyone Who's Read Anything About Education June 2, 2004
61 out of 62 found this review helpful
It is quite unusual to find a book that is a collection of articles and essays as pageturning as What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated? by Alphie Kohn. As I was reading, I found myself becomming excited by Kohn's ideas, even at times verbalizing agreement with him and nodding my head as if he and I were talking.
When Alphie Kohn has an idea he takes it, runs with it, and never looks back. His book is thoroughly researched, but what I really enjoyed about this book is that there is no other author (or very few, rather) who has expressed such a defiance to the public school system as it currently is. Kohn has qualitative and quantitative research backing him up left and right, as well as plenty of moving testimonials, as to why the public school system is in desperate need of reform.
To most critics, reform means "higher standards", "raising the bar", more testing and less recess. Not to Kohn. He delves into the true meaning (or lack there of) of those now cliche terms politicians have created (politicians mind you, not educators) to drum up support for the regression of our country's educationals system. Kohn takes the next step and frankly explains why they are wrong and what we can do to fix a broken system.
Quite the revolutionary, Kohn boldly suggests ridding the public school system not only of annual standardized tests and college enterance tests (i.e. ACT, SAT), but of grades as well. Sound intriguing? It is. And Kohn does a spectacular job of presenting his arguments with ample reasoning and research as well as what he believes the alternatives should be, and does it all in an easily readable manner without being pretentious.
I did feel like at times, however, that Kohn may have gone a bit too extreme even for me. His chapter on how saying "good job" to children is actually detrimental and creates approval-seaking zombies (my words, not his) may have gone a bit too far. At the same time, eventhough I felt the chapter became a little ridiculous, there were still many very valid arguments made and research presented. Despite disagreeing to an extent, I truly learned and thought about something I had never considered before, and if only for that reason I am very happy I read it.
What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated? is a perfect read for teachers wanting ideas to make their classrooms more education friendly, students (high school level or above) who are fed up with all the pressures, uselessness, and arbitrariness of standardized tests and grades, administrators and school board members looking to improve their school on their own standards, and anyone wanting a fresh breath of air and an original, enthusiastic voice added to the debate of public school reform.
Even if you disagree with all of Kohn's ideas, I still recommend you read this book if only for the simple fact that you know what you're up against. This is by far one of the most original, intriguing, thought provoking, and intellectually stimulating critiques of public education I have ever read. You won't find this stuff coming out of the mouth of your average politician, that's for sure.
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