Alfie Kohn Competitiveness Summary

Describe
Alfie Kohn uses the very word “competitiveness,” as a word that we as educators and parents might be confusing with excellence. As educators we can also comparing scores of each student and class and school to see who is the best at teaching so that we can that we have beaten someone else. Kohn explains in his video that this theory of competitiveness is the wrong approach as educators and parents to be teaching to our children. Excellence is a word that we use in our schools to show that the school is preforming, but really are we providing students with the skills they need to think critically as they move on in their life. Kohn does a great job of explaining the American way of being number one and how competitiveness has influenced, the classroom, the workplace and the sports that children play. We know as educators that we need to teach the whole child, not just “teach to the test” but yet that is all that teachers today are pushed to do. Is to compete with other teachers, schools and school systems to see who is the best is.
Analyzing
This in itself takes all creativity form the teacher to encourage the love of learning to their students and focus on test achievement. By pushing teachers to teach to the test we are killing the passion of education and the love of learning in our children. Kohn explains that if we want effective employees in corporations we need to teach the whole student not just teach them how to take a test, because they will be lacking the skills needed to be successful in the real world. Students need to know how to communicate with others effectively, write and orally in multiple settings. Bottom line, competition is teaching are children that they shouldn’t trust others because they will eventually be the competition, and the obstacle to their