Alfie Kohn (alfiekohn.com)
Alfie Kohn is an American lecturer and author in the fields of education, psychology and parenting. He earned a BA from Brown University and a Masters from the University of Chicago. Alfie is not a proponent of Sudbury education over any other alternatives but he articulates beautifully much of the thinking that goes into our approach to school. These are well worth reading.
"Progressive Education,"
Independent School, Spring 2008
"Five Reasons to Stop Saying 'Good Job!'",
Young Children, September 2001
Sir Ken Robinson
(photo from his
TED talk on creativity)
Sir Ken Robinson (sirkenrobinson.com)
"Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence..."We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says... Robinson's TEDTalk has been distributed widely around the Web since its release in June 2006. The most popular words framing blog posts on his talk? "Everyone should watch this."" - TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design)
Growing Artistic Talent
Business Week
A Mathematician's Lament
A Mathematician's Lament, was written by Paul Lockhart in 2002. Mr. Lockhart is a mathematics teacher at Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn, New York. The Mathematical Association of America featured "A Mathematicians Lament" in a column by mathematician Keith Devlin who is the Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University and The Math Guy on NPR's Weekend Edition.
"And there you have it. A complete prescription for permanently disabling young minds— a proven cure for curiosity. What have they done to mathematics! There is such breathtaking depth and heartbreaking beauty in this ancient art form. How ironic that people dismiss mathematics as the antithesis of creativity. They are missing out on an art form older than any book, more profound than any poem, and more abstract than any abstract. And it is school that has done this! What a sad endless cycle of innocent teachers inflicting damage upon innocent students. We could all be having so much more fun."