Education and Parenting Expert Alfie Kohn To Speak at Scarsdale Middle School

Alfie Kohn will be the speaker at the Scarsdale PT Council’s Fall Meeting and Lecture Series on Tuesday, November 13 at 7:30pm. This event will take place at Scarsdale Middle School auditorium, 134 Mamaroneck Avenue in Scarsdale. Kohn will be speaking about “Unconditional Parenting: Beyond Bribes and Threats”. This talk is co-sponsored by the seven Scarsdale School PTA's. All members of the community are invited to attend this important evening.

Mr. Kohn is the author of 12 books and countless articles on human behavior, education, and parenting. His most recent publications include Feel Bad Education…and Other Contrarian Essays on Children and Schooling (2011), The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing (2006), and Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishment to Love and Reason (2005). Time magazine called Mr. Kohn "perhaps the country's most outspoken critic of education's fixation on grades [and] test scores." In addition, his criticisms of competition and rewards are credited with shaping the thinking of educators, parents, and managers across the country and abroad.

Mr. Kohn argues that one basic need all children have is to be loved unconditionally. Yet conventional approaches to parenting such as punishments and rewards teach children that they are loved only when they please us or impress us. Kohn will share his ideas for working with our children rather than doing things to them, and for making sure that they know our care for them is unconditional.

A brief PT Council business meeting will precede Mr. Kohn’s talk at 7:30pm.