Can Everyone Be Excellent?
Alfie Kohn,
Jul 16, 2019
I have to agree with this perspective from Alfie Kohn: "Many critics don't even bother to assert that grades have risen over time or are too generous. They simply point to how many students (in a given class or school) get A's right now — as if a sufficiently high number was objectionable on its face.... boy, do we love to rank. Worse, we create artificial scarcity such as awards — distinctions manufactured out of thin air specifically so that some cannot get them. Every contest involves the invention of a desired status where none existed before and none needs to exist." So much of what we feel today is normal and inescapable is really nothing more than an invention that can just as easily be uninvented. Image: Olivia Hemingway. Via Kottke.
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