Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes Paperback – September 1, 1999

When I transitioned from being a traditional teacher to Montessori, one of my training facilitators recommended this book. While I do think there is a time and place for extrinsic rewards, I have seen the pitfalls of rewarding students with trivial little trinkets. Good classroom management comes by building capacity for the intrinsic rewards we receive when learning something new or by being a good, kind person. Students need structure, consistency, empathy, and love instead of stickers and candy. This book also explains how rewards lead to unhealthy competition among students instead of fostering a supportive community of learners. I want them to compete with their own personal best, not each other.

Having read some of the previous reviews on this topic I find them to be suitably erudite as the subject matter in this book is. Many do seem to still be thinking of this book in terms they were educated in and reluctant to move from that. It is indeed a radical book, as one review stated. I think suitably so. I came away from this book convinced of the complete need to eliminate punishments from my teaching lexicon. Having said that, I am a spiritual and yoga teacher, and not someone who comes to students in a classroom system that largely castrates the ability to practice what he would point out in this book without large systemic changes in how education is done.The fact is he presents the research to back up the utter uselessness of punishments and what appears to be their flip side (but isn't) rewards. This would seem to avoid the control disease that the entire English system of schooling has clearly built into it. There are certainly other ways of accomplishing happy and educated children- like the gurukula system of India- where the teacher's entire life and example serves to educate the student, not merely the content of their assigned 'topic'.I believe that rewards and punishments are an outgrowth of the control disease promoted throughout the world by England and it's educational system still in place to this day. Overall, a stellar book that I think of often in my mind when considering how to approach my students.

I've always been suspicious of the whole system of rewards and punishments as it is always dependent on the mood of the giver/depriver. Particularly as they are evaluating something about the child as acceptable or unacceptable without actually taking the time to understand the behaviour or the underlying need.Consistency is always a problem too as we are organically inconsistent and therefore prone to be human!This book spells out exactly the areas that rewards and punishment cause damage, ie in terms of internal emotional effect. It is written clearly and simply enough for parents, teachers and carers to understand.It is shockingly blunt and often humourous in it's approach and I applaud this. It has shaken me up, particularly in the area of praise where I didn't realise how much I praised in the hope of getting the child to change their behaviour.Personally I think all parents and teachers should be made to read this book in order to understand the subtle differences between internal and external motivation. I think that 'Time Out' and deprivation and punishment is a form of abuse - an abuse of power.When witnessing people using such methods I have always had a real feeling that they lack creativity and fall back on all they have known. Well the great news is that there are other ways of parenting and teaching where everyone can feel great and be respectful and self motivated.After all we are not dogs or rats!

In Punished by Rewards, Alfie Kohn challenges many of the sacred ideas that fuel our modern culture. Despite the widespread use of both punishments and rewards, the evidence is strong that neither approach is very effective at motivating people. From the corporate world to the classroom, the tradition of behaviorism is almost ubiquitous, where gold stars, grades, prizes and even cash are dangled before people under the common perception that doing so will improve their performance.Research shows that this method is unlikely to bring about lasting change, high quality work, or true attention to the task at hand. In fact, it can do the exact opposite. Many studies show that if we reward people for behavior that they enjoy, they often cease doing it once the reward is taken away. By approaching training with threats and bribes, we interfere with the development of intrinsic motivation and replace it with a focus on external ramifications.This changes the focus from the activity at hand to the end result, which reduces creativity and saps the joy from the work. Even though we may feel better using the carrot than the stick, the reality is that neither approach is truly helpful.How can this be true, when both rewards and punishments appear to work so well? Studies show that while people can be induced to be more productive for a period of time, this is true only for quantity, not quality. The changes also rarely last, and need to be constantly reinforced with new rewards or punishments in order to induce a new round of temporary change. Rewards can have other effects too. When prizes and rewards are in limited supply, a competitive environment ensues. This can reduce cooperation, mentoring, and teamwork, and even encourage people to game the system to get the reward.These ideas have great ramifications in the workplace, the classroom, and in the home. Although it may be easier to punish a child who misbehaves, the only thing it teaches the child is the use of power over others. We may think we are making a point about a misbehavior, but the point we are really making is that we have the power, and we are willing to use it. As a result, future thought will focus on how not to get caught rather than on how the situation could have been handled differently.This is a big problem. Perhaps THE big problem. Mindfuless psychology and Buddhist tradition insist that all of our suffering is caused by not being in the moment. Flow studies demonstrate that optimal experiences are best cultivated through attention and presence. Attention is powerful medicine, and instead of learning to direct it and use it, we are trained to trade it for trinkets.I have a long way to go to recover from my own submersion in this paradigm, but I am actively engaging in my life in ways that I hope will reduce it's impact. As a parent, I am intimidated by the work ahead of me, weaning off the easy solutions and responding to the moment rather than from habit or convenience. I feel compelled to undertake this journey with my children, however, as the benefits of developing this presence in them far outweigh any temporary relief I may get from a threat or a bribe. Habits can be hard to break, however. Luckily, Kohn ends on an encouraging note, and suggests that even small steps in this direction are better than none. We can wean off punishments, recognize the harm that bribery can do, and perhaps choose our battles more wisely so that we throw down the gauntlet less often. We can invite participation from those we are working with in order to develop better skills at solving our problems with creative cooperation and compassionate communication. Together we can help create a brighter future for us all.I would recommend this book to parents, teachers, managers and anyone working towards creating a more egalitarian world.see more of my reviews at: [...]Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes

My favorite author of advice for parents and teachers. Kohn walks you through the research and logic behind the reasons behaviorism doesn't work and in fact does the opposite of what we want. This is a must read for teachers, administrators, and parents.