Educational Philosophy Alfie Kohn (2002)

Educational Philosophy

Alfie Kohn (2002) offers a convincing argument that contemporary education places too much emphasis on grades, irrespective of whether or not her response to the characterization that grades are inflated is completely accurate. According to Kohn, the conclusion that grades are "inflated" is unsubstantiated for several reasons. For one thing, it may simply be that the educational system is performing its fundamental function of educating students better after a few centuries of development. Second, it may be a reflection of increased opportunities for students to pursue academic areas of genuine interest to them. Third, it may be attributable to administrative changes that allow students greater latitude to withdraw from courses instead of receiving poor grades.

Kohn also challenges the conclusion that SAT scores are declining, which critics of grade inflation suggest demonstrates that grades are inflated since changing SAT scores should correspond to similar changes in grades during the same time period. Kohn (2002) suggests that (1) SAT scores are not actually declining when all factors are considered; (2) SAT scores are a poor predictor of academic performance or long-term subject matter retention; and (3) fluctuations in SAT scores are likely the result of totally different factors than those that relate directly to academic performance (Kohn, 2002).

Curiously, Kohn does not mention the obvious possibility that increased SAT scores could also reflect specific preparation that could, in many cases, actually conflict with devoting attention to academic studies to the detriment of the latter while the former improves.

While I agree with Kohn's arguments, in my experiences and observations at the primary and secondary school level, grades are indeed becoming inflated, but by a mechanism not addressed by Kohn, because the author's research predated the full implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) first introduced by the Bush administration in 2001. In the interim, grades have become tremendously inflated in man states, by virtue of the nearly complete preoccupation on the part of education administrators with preparing students - more accurately, coaching them - to perform satisfactorily on federally required competency tests in the very narrow areas of mathematics and reading. Kohn (2002) refutes the underlying teaching philosophy that conceives of college professors as performing the function of distinguishing or ranking students for the benefit of future employers or graduate school admissions offices. Similarly, Kohn rejects the belief that grades are necessary (or even particularly effective) at motivating learning.

According to Kohn, college professors who espouse the ranking philosophy of education have forgotten that their primary role is to educate students and not to fulfill a weeding out function for the benefit of third parties. Kohn (2002) presents substantial evidence that college students actually learn more and retain more genuine enthusiasm for their studies in non-competitive academic environments than in highly competitive, grade- focused education models.

While I agree that overemphasis on performance, particularly as measured by grades, is not necessarily conducive to an optimal learning environment, I have also experienced and observed the extent to which the motivation to achieve high grades has also provided concurrent motivation for learning and that working hard toward a high grade can also stimulate long-term subject matter retention, at least in my case.

In What Does it Mean to Be Well-Educated? (Kohn, 2003) presents a very convincing argument against the underlying definitions and approaches of contemporary education with (most of) which I agree wholeheartedly. Specifically, Kohn suggests that contemporary attitudes about what a "good education" is reflects social concepts and status connotations that bear little relation to what genuine education is. The author presents a much broader concept of what the point of schooling is that includes preparing individuals for becoming competent caring adults. I have often noticed that some of the highest performing students are comparatively less well developed socially.

On the other hand, I disagree somewhat with Kohn's conclusion that preparing students for vocational success is necessarily an all-or-none proposition that corrupts education for corporate needs to the extent it focuses on vocational training (Kohn, 2003). While I agree that any strict focus on vocational training undermines the most essential purpose of education, I have always believed that it could accomplish both goals simultaneously instead of producing students who are virtually completely unprepared to perform vocationally when they first enter the workforce. If anything, learning skills like project management, interpersonal communications in various media, and other necessary vocational skills could be better incorporated into the college curriculum without sacrificing the quality of academic education.

Likewise, I have come to believe that contemporary education unreasonably requires students to continue in areas of academic subjects that are contrary to the student's known intellectual interests and natural aptitudes much longer than necessary.

In my opinion, one of the most beneficial ways that education could prepare students for a fulfilling career is to promote their independent development of a course of study that reflects personal preference by the beginning of secondary school rather than only at the very end of high school in the last two academic years.

Kohn (2003) also argues that rote memorization and the arbitrary selection of lessons and age-old reading selections do not further the aims of providing the most relevant or useful education. This has also always seemed rather obvious to me as well.

To the extent education must include any required courses of study, those mandatory courses (and lessons) should be exclusively those that relate to necessary skills or subject matter that serves a specific function and never merely perpetuate the assumptions made many generations ago that certain "classic" works of literature are important enough for all students to study in high school. In my opinion, reading, writing, analysis, and reasoning are all important skills that should be taught in high school; however, the insistence of teaching those skills primarily through the same literary works available our parents and grandparents is nonsensical and counterproductive.