Jan 1, 2026 · 27 min · 9 segments
January 1, 2026 Who Gets to Decide? - Part 2 Intellectually vibrant classrooms are distinguished by teachers who do a lot more asking than telling. Their motto when confronting challenges or planning…
Alfie KohnHost
When we bring the kids in on it, which should be the watchword, the motto for teachers of kids of all ages, how do we decide how to solve this problem? Bring the kids in on it.
where teachers should not just be putting up a list of rules for kids, but to have the kids construct the rules, and not just construct rules, but better yet, construct the sense of how we want our classroom to be.
Because when you have do's and do nots, the understood question is, what's going to happen to the kids who break the rules? There are actually teachers who pride themselves on giving kids some choices by asking them what we should do to the kids who break the rules.
I don't know if you've ever been in a classroom where teachers invite kids to come up with those ideas, but kids come up with hair-raisingly harsh punitive consequences, inventive bordering on sadistic.
And if you look at that, you might have the temptation to say, well, obviously, if kids are not of a certain age or seriousness, they can't be allowed to participate.
But no, the problem here is is that the kids didn't have enough say in the broader question of how we want our classroom to be.
The teacher's role is to expand the conversation beyond what most kids in our society are used to, which is, you should do this, and if you don't, here's how we'll make you suffer.
To help them move beyond the punitive framework in which so many of us, including adults, are trapped.
When we bring the kids in on it, which should be the watchword, the motto for teachers of kids of all ages, how do we decide how to solve this problem? Bring the kids in on it.
where teachers should not just be putting up a list of rules for kids, but to have the kids construct the rules, and not just construct rules, but better yet, construct the sense of how we want our classroom to be.
Because when you have do's and do nots, the understood question is, what's going to happen to the kids who break the rules? There are actually teachers who pride themselves on giving kids some choices by asking them what we should do to the kids who break the rules.
I don't know if you've ever been in a classroom where teachers invite kids to come up with those ideas, but kids come up with hair-raisingly harsh punitive consequences, inventive bordering on sadistic.
And if you look at that, you might have the temptation to say, well, obviously, if kids are not of a certain age or seriousness, they can't be allowed to participate.
But no, the problem here is is that the kids didn't have enough say in the broader question of how we want our classroom to be.
The teacher's role is to expand the conversation beyond what most kids in our society are used to, which is, you should do this, and if you don't, here's how we'll make you suffer.
To help them move beyond the punitive framework in which so many of us, including adults, are trapped.
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