alfiekohn

alfiekohn, 4 months ago to random

1/2
In my book Unconditional Parenting I challenged the belief that parents in dangerous neighborhoods must control and punish their kids to protect them: https://is.gd/PQvxss.
A recent study confirms that such parenting is damaging even (or especially) in such places: https://is.gd/mBqpVM

alfiekohn, 4 months ago to random

“When you watch a child who is focused on learning, & let them know you’re watching, & let them know your opinion, you just took that thing away from them. You just made it yours. Your smell is all over it now...

“I watched an 18-month-old stacking blocks, completely absorbed. When she successfully stacked 3 blocks, I exclaimed, ‘Good job!’ She looked at me [as if to say] “Excuse me. Did somebody ask for your opinion?” Then she stopped playing with the blocks.”

Source: https://carolblack.org/the-gaze/

alfiekohn, 4 months ago to random

Dissertations typically aren't graded; either they're acceptable or they're not. So this Canadian professor wonders why we're so sure it makes sense to persist in grading what students do before that point: https://blogs.ubc.ca/teachingamongtrees/2021/10/30/why-dont-we-grade-dissertations/

alfiekohn, 4 months ago to random

Christ! It's "polarized" because a large chunk of this country is now an authoritarian cult, determined to end our democracy and subjugate those who aren't straight, white, and Christian, while the rest of us, terrified, are trying to stop them.
The "polarization" framing - here by the Wash. Post, but also in heavy rotation by other media outlets - is a gift to the first group.

(More on this topic here: http://tinyurl.com/ac9z44xs.)

alfiekohn, 4 months ago to random

"Even a first-class ticket on the Titanic is still a ticket on the Titanic."
When Zeynep Tufekci said that, she was talking about pandemics and how our failure to provide vaccinations to poorer countries allows new variants to spread worldwide, but it also applies to the climate crisis.

alfiekohn, 5 months ago to random

I'm constantly struck by how common it is to judge colleges (and private K-12 schools) not by the quality of the education they offer but by the number of applicants they manage to avoid admitting. Say it with me: "Selectivity and quality are completely different things."

alfiekohn, 5 months ago to random

A new Pennsylvania law took effect today that bans "the shackling and solitary confinement of pregnant incarcerated women, and full-body cavity searches of female inmates by male guards."

I imagine stunned foreigners asking us: "What is it like living in a country where such a law is necessary?"

alfiekohn, 5 months ago to random

Hey, let's list our favorite clichés for rationalizing one's failure to speak out against harmful policies. I'll start: “Like it or not, this is reality." (Alternate version: "That train has left the station.”) Then there's “We need a seat at the table.”
Your turn.

alfiekohn, 5 months ago to random

How many children fail to get what they need, psychologically speaking, just because their parents are terrified that someone might regard them as insufficiently firm and "in control" - or guilty of helicopter parenting?

alfiekohn, 6 months ago to random

The NYT recently recycled the conservative conventional wisdom on grade inflation, ominously warning that excellence is now in doubt at Yale because too many students get A's. So here's an op-ed I published in the Times awhile back, asking why, at least in our culture, excellence tends to be construed as a scarce commodity: https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/excellence/

alfiekohn, 6 months ago to random

Mindfulness training for kids: In 2016, a "carefully-controlled investigation...showed no benefits for any measure, and indicated an adverse effect for some participants": https://goo.gl/a7nZi1.
Now a study of a different mindfulness program has found similar results: https://is.gd/h4317q
Uh-oh. Does this mean we have to actually address systemic causes of anxiety and depression?

alfiekohn, 6 months ago to random

Interesting study showing that kids who seem to learn faster probably just had earlier exposure to the same content - although, like so much research in the field, "learning" is limited to knowing the right answer or how to solve a well-defined problem: https://is.gd/pXJJBS

alfiekohn, 6 months ago to random

Lots of research (reviewed in my book No Contest) shows that participating in competition undermines moral development and generosity, but one of those studies, by developmental psychologist Norma Feshbach, really stands out. It found that merely growing up with a competitive parent is enough to reduce a child's empathy - sort of like the health risks of breathing secondhand smoke.

alfiekohn, 6 months ago to random

Accusing progressive students of engaging in "cancel culture" serves mostly to distract us from the far right's more widespread and chilling use of state power to silence dissent. And the latter increasingly overlaps with a move to shut down any criticism of Israel's occupation by claiming it's pro-terrorist or antisemitic: https://is.gd/Qr5DnY

alfiekohn, 6 months ago to random

Years ago I was chatting with Thomas Gordon (author of Parent Effectiveness Training) and he remarked, "Autocratic environments make people sick." Of course he was referring to control-based parenting, but now I can't help pondering the relevance of his comment for an entire nation.

alfiekohn, 6 months ago to random

When he taught H.S. history, Jim Nehring handed out several textbooks’ takes on the same historical event, each offering a different account in a tone of absolute certainty. Students learned more about the topic but also came to question authoritative pronouncements.

This is also invaluable in everyday life: Each time I read multiple reviews of the same movie or recipes for a given dish, I realize that, had I read just one, I might have accepted its perspective or instruction as the Truth.

Neverfadingwood, 7 months ago to random

It me.
#neurodivergent #ActuallyAutistic

alfiekohn, 7 months ago to random

The idea that people used to be more moral, or that the quality of parenting and schools have declined, is neither new nor true. It is, however, quite dangerous.

My new blog post: "Aggressive Nostalgia: The Dark Side of Pining for the Good Old Days" - https://www.alfiekohn.org/blogs/aggressive-nostalgia/

alfiekohn, 7 months ago to random

Darwin never once talked about survival of the fittest; that term was coined by reactionary writer Herbert Spencer to justify a starve-the-poor, good-riddance-to-the-inferior-races agenda.

Here's some useful background on that meretricious, pseudoscientific idea: https://tinyurl.com/5bbtda5s

alfiekohn, 7 months ago to random

Parents explain to The Onion why they're banning books:

• “If my son reads a book with a Black character, he might become Black.”
• "A book killed my husband."
• “The Supreme Court showed us that any group, no matter how small, can force its will on the nation.”
• "Nothing can defeat the love we have for our kids and the hate we have for yours."

alfiekohn, 7 months ago to random

In 1965, Nevitt Sanford, who coauthored The Authoritarian Personality, lamented that research psychologists were losing sight of the real, experiencing human being behind all their experimental data. Read this page and decide whether his critique still rings true:

alfiekohn, 8 months ago to random

In terms of what it reveals about her psychiatric status, Ms. Wolf might as well have announced, "My toaster is secretly recording my thoughts." But antivax falsehoods are fed by political fervor, so such pronouncements are eagerly seized on. And ultimately contribute to countless deaths.

alfiekohn, 8 months ago to random

Debate comprises a discrete set of skills: Successful debaters may not have truth on their side or even more pertinent info.
Same for taking standardized tests: They measure not just knowledge or thinking but test-taking ability.

These things are widely & falsely seen as neutral, reliable indicators of what's true & of ed. excellence, respectively. You can be wrong & win a debate (or be right & lose). You can be coached to beat a test - or, conversely, look dumb b/c you're not a gd test-taker.

alfiekohn, 8 months ago to random

Asking for a Catholic friend: When Newton announced that force = mass times acceleration, did he mean that the more kids are pressured to attend religious services, the faster they’ll run away?

alfiekohn, 8 months ago to random

Conservatives can "indoctrinate their children however they wish" but now demand the right "to enforce their ideology on others." It's "cultural transformation propelled by the power of the state": https://is.gd/K3AILK

Just call 'em Moms for Totalitarianism.