Alfie Kohn's Essay: How Not To Get Into College

Tuesday, February 16th, 2016 How Not to Get into College: Evaluating vs. Teaching Education has always been an important part of our sustainable society in which everyone plays a role. The purpose of the education system is to provide a way for students to learn and gain knowledge. The current education system focuses more on evaluations rather than teaching, which creates a stressful and unpleasant high school experience. Alfie Kohn’s essay, How Not to Get into College: The Preoccupation with Preparation

The intrinsic value of anything is often given an underlying inherent value. Extrinsic is the opposite; which defines itself to have value that is not intrinsic. Alfie Kohn’s essay “How not to get into College”, Hero Jones’s poem “Somnambulist, and the episode “Rosebud” from the television show, The Simpsons, reveals a deeper meaning of how an individual’s happiness and motivation in life can be accomplished intrinsically and not extrinsically. It also indicates the concept that an individual’s inner

system, grades and getting accepted into that top University and College is what matters to the majority of students. Kohn’s “How not to get into College: The Preoccupation with Preparation” suggests that grades are what controls every student’s life and that nothing else matters. Pressure rises exponentially to get above that cut off mark and squeezing every point to get a higher GPA is definitely reality. To begin, Alfie Kohn’s take on how students let grades control their lives shows that teens throughout

ESSAY 1 Carol Dweck’s Brainology sets forth the “growth mindset” as the only factor in a student’s success. However, Alfie Kohn’s The Perils of ‘Growth Mindset’ Education: Why We’re Trying to Fix our Kids When We Should Be Fixing the System, proposes another view. Also, Home Life is a third factor that impacts a student’s success. I believe all three of these are integral to a student’s accomplishments. Dweck’s ‘The Growth Mindset’ postulates that if a student’s intelligence is something that can

Imagine this scenario: a lecture hall is filled to the brim with college students, more than half of the students are either daydreaming about the upcoming weekend or texting on their phones. Their professor stands in the front of the hall trying to give his prepared lecture, but the majority of his students are not paying attention. What shall the professor do to motivate his students to pay attention in class? He announces to them that if they can fully engage themselves in his lecture for the

In “The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation”, Alfie Kohn explores the phenomenon behind grade inflation. Whether it is complaints or just the general idea that such an undesired occurrence has routinely taken place, Kohn certainly explores them all. He begins with addressing that the issue has not just transpired, but has been in existence over time as many have complained periodically. As Kohn notes on page 261, grade inflation is recognized as a poor occurrence, yet Kohn reveals the struggle as “truly

on the Grading System Introduction: I remember the first time that a grading rubric was attached to a piece of my writing. Suddenly all the joy was taken away. I was writing for a grade -- I was no longer exploring for myself. I want to get that back. Will I ever get that back? As doleful as it may sound, it is the truth. For years, students have been forced to live under a strict grading system. I am now directly speaking to those responsible for the creation of the grading system.This must change

In “The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation,” Alfie Kohn sets out to determine if grade inflation is indeed fact or fiction. The opening quotes provided by two professors at Harvard University separated by over century has most definitely peaked my interest. It had me questioning whether or not these professors are holding our education system to a “Harvard” standard or is their actually truth to their statements; that feigned students are indeed submitting “sham work” (Bergmann, 260). Kohn goes onto