What Does it Mean to be Well-Educated?: And Other Essays on Standards, Grading, and Other Follies [Paperback]

It is quite unusual to find a book that is a collection of articles and essays as pageturning as What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated? by Alphie Kohn. As I was reading, I found myself becomming excited by Kohn's ideas, even at times verbalizing agreement with him and nodding my head as if he and I were talking.
When Alphie Kohn has an idea he takes it, runs with it, and never looks back. His book is thoroughly researched, but what I really enjoyed about this book is that there is no other author (or very few, rather) who has expressed such a defiance to the public school system as it currently is. Kohn has qualitative and quantitative research backing him up left and right, as well as plenty of moving testimonials, as to why the public school system is in desperate need of reform.
To most critics, reform means "higher standards", "raising the bar", more testing and less recess. Not to Kohn. He delves into the true meaning (or lack there of) of those now cliché terms politicians have created (politicians mind you, not educators) to drum up support for the regression of our country's educationals system. Kohn takes the next step and frankly explains why they are wrong and what we can do to fix a broken system.
Quite the revolutionary, Kohn boldly suggests ridding the public school system not only of annual standardized tests and college enterance tests (i.e. ACT, SAT), but of grades as well. Sound intriguing? It is. And Kohn does a spectacular job of presenting his arguments with ample reasoning and research as well as what he believes the alternatives should be, and does it all in an easily readable manner without being pretentious.
I did feel like at times, however, that Kohn may have gone a bit too extreme even for me. His chapter on how saying "good job" to children is actually detrimental and creates approval-seaking zombies (my words, not his) may have gone a bit too far. At the same time, eventhough I felt the chapter became a little ridiculous, there were still many very valid arguments made and research presented. Despite disagreeing to an extent, I truly learned and thought about something I had never considered before, and if only for that reason I am very happy I read it.
What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated? is a perfect read for teachers wanting ideas to make their classrooms more education friendly, students (high school level or above) who are fed up with all the pressures, uselessness, and arbitrariness of standardized tests and grades, administrators and school board members looking to improve their school on their own standards, and anyone wanting a fresh breath of air and an original, enthusiastic voice added to the debate of public school reform.
Even if you disagree with all of Kohn's ideas, I still recommend you read this book if only for the simple fact that you know what you're up against. This is by far one of the most original, intriguing, thought provoking, and intellectually stimulating critiques of public education I have ever read. You won't find this stuff coming out of the mouth of your average politician, that's for sure.

If you are truly interested in what can be done to improve our schools, and tired of the rhetoric fed to you by politicians and the media, this book will definitely give you some meat to chew on and think about. I recommend it for all who believe in the value of education.

This is an insightful book outlining some of the things that do and do not work in education and what could be done to improve those.

For example, emphasis on passing standardized test does not necessarily improve learning and knowledge but only helps students become good at cracking a specific type of test. Learning often takes back seat compared to learning tricks to crack the test. It may even become a measure of resources to join courses to help crack such tests, which does not necessarily measure knowledge or intelligence.

There are sugestions like making work at schools more project, problem solving and discovery oriented, where students have to cooperate, show initiative and think logically to solve problems rather than simply learning tricks to solve certain type of questions.

I only found the section on capitalistic conspiracy theory a bit distractive from main idea. However, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in education.