rewards and punishments?

I recieved an inquiry from a woman in Florida who had acquired a post office door bank I had made in 1977. It is nice to know that some of my earlier work is still around. The banks were one of my first woodworking projects and the photo above shows them as displayed at Nelson Leather Company.

A letter from a parent to our local free newspaper, the Lovely County Citizen complained of a system of rewards and punishments for students based on their performance on standardized tests. You can click on the letter at left to see it in a larger size.

If you think that rewards and punishments might be effective, I would like to introduce you to the writings of Alfie Kohn.

Billions of dollars have been targeted toward school reform and for every school district in the US there are special absurd measures taken and absurd mandates forced upon children. Even small things can scar children for life.

I have also begun reading Seymour Sarason's compilation, the Skeptical Visionary. It tells of the difficulties involved in educational reform, which ought to be quite simple with the right formula.

Still, what stands between education and meaningful reform is an understanding of the relationship between hands and brain, and our failure to put the hands at work in learning.

Make, fix, create, and increase for others the likelihood of learning likewise.