If I offered you a thousand dollars to take off your shoes, you'd very likely accept--and then I could triumphantly announce that 'rewards work.' But as with punishments, they can never help someone develop a *commitment* to a task or action, a reason to keep doing it when there's no longer a payoff.

Grades are a subjective rating masquerading as an objective evaluation.

If a child is off-task...mayb e the problem is not the child...maybe it's the task.

Each time I visit such a classroom, where the teacher is more interested in creating a democratic community than in maintaining her position of authority, I’m convinced all over again that moving away from consequences and rewards isn’t just realistic - it’s the best way to help kids grow into good learners and good people.

The legendary statistical consultant W. Edwards Deming, . . . has called the system by which merit is appraised and rewarded 'the most powerful inhibitor to quality and productivity in the Western world' . . . it is simply unfair to the extent that employees are held responsible for what are, in reality, systemic factors that are beyond their control.

If children feel safe, they can take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, learn to trust, share their feelings, and grow.

Children, after all, are not just adults-in-the-making. They are people whose current needs and rights and experiences must be taken seriously.