Rating: 
Summary: Most thought-provoking book I've read!
Review: This book challenges much of what I've been taught as an educator. I have recently read much of William Glasser's writings on quality schools. This book "puts it all together" for me. I would highly recommend it for any parent or teacher concerned with promoting internal control in children. The author backs up his premises with solid research. This book should be required reading for every aspiring teacher!
Rating:
Summary: Superb Book! Provides a whole new perspective on rewards
Review: I read this book as part of an organizational behavior class, wrote a paper and did a class presentation. I can honestly say that of all of the presentations this subject evoked the most passion and questions. The book provide me a whole new perspective on rewards and incentives that I can and plan to use in my physician group practice. A great book
Rating:
Summary: Could be titled "The Book of Ahhaaa's"...a fabulous read.
Review: Archie Kohn has given a great gift beyond words in this book. Brilliantly researched "Punished by Rewards" offers the reader an insightful, balanced perspective in learning how to relate fairly in all relationships
Rating:
Summary: Profoundly right
Review: Behaviorism, pop or otherwise, is caustic. This book lays out exactly how caustic it can be. I've tried behaviorism -- I was well schooled as a practitioner of the evil art -- and found it wanting. In the workplace it is dehumanizing. As a parenting tool it is destructive of both the child and the relationship with the child.This book is one of the 4 or 5 most life-changing books that I have ever read. When friends ask me for parenting advice or management advice, this book tops my list of recommendations. If this book lacks in any area, it is in providing an alternative toolkit. It has a few things to say on the topic, but you will need to roll your own toolkit to a large extent. Having made the journey to the other side, I can tell you it is well worth the effort. I find it telling that friends did not start asking me for parenting or management advice until *after* I had reengineered my life according to this book. Read this book and get started on your own journey toward a life of mutual respect towards your fellow travelers.
Rating: 
Summary: Caused me to question rewards; still yearn for solutions
Review: I come at this book as an educator and as someone who has spent a lot of time grading students and helping them navigate the treacherous waters of the standardized testing game. This was on the bookshelf of the tutoring center where I work and I thought I'd see what this man's case was.
For the most part, I found this to be an intentional counterbalance to business as usual. It appears that there are a great many reviewers with the psychology background to assess how he may set up BF Skinner as a straw man to strike down. I'm not sure it's necessary to set up Skinner as a man to strike down. I do agree with Kohn, however, that "pop behaviorism" and incentive driven behaviors are pervasive in our culture. Incentive plans in business, grades at school, and rewards at home are commonly thought of strategies for management. Kohn consistently attacks the abuses and excesses of incentives and gives a coherent framework for what makes rewards wrong, focusing on how relationships are fragmented and creativity and attention are undermined. As a teacher who has seen grade obsessed students in tutoring and classroom situations, any book that provides philosophical and psychological research to advocate for intrinsic learning is welcomed.
Readers should be aware that this is a *very* radical book. Like other radicals, Kohn is probably better at ripping down the capitalist, or in this case incentive-based, order than in building something up to replace it with. Kohn wants us to reason with people and clearly communicate agreed upon objectives. Has Kohn ever tried to implement these strategies in a classroom of 35-40 urban students? I believe that he would argue we should have smaller class sizes that we could value intrinsic motivation, but I question whether he would be living in the real world at that point. There are some valuable bullet points in the final 80-100 pages of the book where he advocates for strategies. Maybe his other works go at that side. Fundamentally, though he asks us to get away from our American focus on ends such as profits, grades, and behavioral complicity from our children. That makes this book truly radical and I am still weighing in my own mind how convinced I am about the pragmatic value of this book.
I think this book is valuable reading about the dangers of using rewards without thought for the long-term consequences of those rewards. I caution readers from joining Kohn wholeheartedly for in many ways, he seems to me to be a counterconsultant rather than an established educator with unassailable results or a business leader who has built a business implementing his principles. Now that I think of it, I yearned for the long term narratives of success stories where I could interpret details. He does cite a lot of research studies in support of his views, but I am not enough of a psychologist to ascertain whether I am fully convinced of the value in embracing the risks inherent with embracing his views full force.
Stay tuned. I might edit this one and say this has been a paradigm altering book that leads me away from keeping test prep as part of my personal mission. As it stands, I consider this a book that has helped me by raising some unresolved questions in my mind.
4 stars.
--SD
Rating: 
Summary: "No one's passing out the M&M's"
Review: Major concerns of this book are the way we are treated in school and at work. Here are some statements about these matters whose truth struck me:
"Aside from any immediate return, we have to note the possible long-term effect of education."
"... we have to explain the behavior of those who pay for or approve those who teach.
"... the use of a standard wage as something which may be discontinued unless the employee works in a given manner is not too great an advance [from slavery]."
These concerned statements are not from Alfie Kohn: they are B.F. Skinner's, from his 1953 work "Science and Human Behavior". Kohn's book relies a lot on an unusually harsh way of presenting that science.
Alfie Kohn mentioned in the preface taking a psychology class based on Skinner's experimental work with rats and seemed put off by it. But the work with rats was just a start for Skinner and apparently a sound one: working with an apparently "simpler" organism gave Skinner a chance to uncover many principles. Hardly enough to "explain away" people - or rats. And these principles were present long before Skinner, just as evolution was present (at least for evolutionists) long before Darwin.
Although some of Skinner's works are cited as references for this book, Skinner's 1953 "Science and Human Behavior" isn't to be found among the references even though a entire section of it on "Controlling Agencies" is devoted to understanding the way schools, workplacees, governments, religion, and psychotherapist use control. Skinner knew that being ignorant of controls was unwise. Ahd he wrote about it because didn't want you to be ignorant about control.
"Punished by Rewards" seems like two book in one.
The first is a concern, not unlike Skinner's and probably most of us who have been to school and work, against being manipulated. That seems a good concern but hardly a concern one needs Kohn to point out. I'd trust you would see those problems yourself and, if motivated, I'm sure you could find ways to address them (and, to some extent, likely have).
The second book is a smearing of Skinner and Behaviorism, which Kohn associates closely with what he calls "pop behaviorism". What's "pop behaviorism"? Kohn writes its core is "Do this and you'll get that". Sound modern? Oddly, he admits that "rewards were in use long before a theory was devised to explain and systemize their practice". He also refers to "the popular version of behaviorism, whereby we try to solve problems by offering people a goody if they do what we want." Haven't people been doing this for thousands of years? Did they need Skinner and behaviorists to learn that? Is Skinner and the behaviorists responsible if abuses of their findings were made?
It was, after all, Skinner who noted many manipulations and sought to help us all to overcome them , as in "Science and Human Behavior" and his concerns about piecework and gambling systems. It was, after all, Skinner, who encouraged people to join together to design and live in alternative societies, as with his book "Walden Two". It was Skinner who warned against misguided practices that threaten all humanity in "Beyond Freedom and Dignity". The Skinner willing to explore being "beyond freedom and dignity" was the same Skinner who taught us about controlling agencies in "Science and Human Behavior".
In the preface, Kohn writes that Skinner "would have been appalled by the result", meaning this book. I'm not so sure. I think it is more likely that Skinner would have agreed with much of it for much the same reasons that W. Edwards Deming did, that it notes misuses of control. And if Skinner could brush off Chomsky's criticism by recognizing Chomsky didn't understand Skinner's work, there can be no doubt that he could have brushed off Kohn's criticism. When asked before this book was published, he was kind enough to interview with Kohn. Skinner, 80 years old, answers a series of pointed questions (included as an Appendix to this book) with ease, grace, wit and sensitivity.
Why Kohn felt the need to use Skinner and Behaviorism as punching bags in a book about rewards I don't know. It seems inconsistent with Kohn's concerns about competition and manipulation, doesn't it? Skinner and Behaviorism is, in good part, about reinforcement: reinforcments may not be rewards and rewards may not be reinforcements.
As to "pop behaviorism", a term which seems closely tied to Kohn, that describes a way of manipulating that goes back to the snake with Eve. Skinner's Radical Behaviorism appears to offer far better tools to understand and avoid "pop behaviorism" than Kohn does. But rather than oppose the two, I wish Kohn would reconsider Skinner's Radical Behaviorism, in which case he might be able to write a truly fine book by applying Skinner's work as well as learning from Skinner's maturity, depth of thought, and sense of fair play.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth reading
Review: Behaviorism, pop or otherwise, is caustic. This book lays out exactly how caustic it can be. I've tried behaviorism -- I was well schooled as a practitioner of the evil art -- and found it wanting. In the workplace it is dehumanizing. As a parenting tool it is destructive of both the child and the relationship with the child. This book is one of the 4 or 5 most life-changing books that I have ever read. When friends ask me for parenting advice or management advice, this book tops my list of recommendations. If this book lacks in any area, it is in providing an alternative toolkit. It has a few things to say on the topic, but you will need to roll your own toolkit to a large extent. Having made the journey to the other side, I can tell you it is well worth the effort. I find it telling that friends did not start asking me for parenting or management advice until *after* I had reengineered my life according to this book. Read this book and get started on your own journey toward a life of mutual respect towards your fellow travelers.
Rating: 
Summary: Uninformed about behaviorism, but some useful points
Review: I'm not sure how many times I've had to deal with this sort of confused analysis. Mr. Kohn is on track on many points, but is about as uninformed of modern behaviorism as he could be. I'm sorry to have to say this but in no way does providing reinforcement eliminate 'intrisic motivation'. That is just silly. Also, 'reward' is not the same as 'reinforcement', though it serves his goal to hint at this. Anybody who knows enough about operant behaviorism already knows this. Read it if you want and use it if you must. But, I issue a challenge to everybody on planet earth. Try to live a life without utilizing reinforcement. It's not possible. I'm not saying it is difficult, but rather that you can't avoid it. If you believe so, you must be blissfully ignorant of the things happening around you. If you are a teacher and want to become more effective, contact a good behaviorist, not the local clown who calls himself a psychologist. You may think Alfie is helping you, but most of the things he suggests are already part of the behavioral perspective (minus the extremism of some of his points). We just use more exact terminology. The difference is that relying on Mr. Kohn to solve your problems will leave your toolbox half-full. Be a behaviorist, but not a bad (i.e., pop) behaviorist. On this, I guess we agree.
Rating:
Summary: Life Changing
Review: This book was a watershed for me as a professional manager of people. As most of America, I too was convinced that rewards such as monetary bonuses and the like were the only way to achieve performance. As Alfie points out, these methods do indeed produce results, but only in the short term. How else to explain the turnover rate for sales people in most companies? Funny but it is the company which creates its own turnover issue, increase in new-hire training costs, false reporting of numbers, and artificial barriers to even greater success in sales numbers. It's even more bizarre to see companies offer similar (although drastically less) rewards to "service" personnel and then wonder why customers aren't loyal. How many of you actually arrive at a retail destination and want a salesperson? We are all not motivated by the same things, nor do we all share the same goals either professionally or personally so why would we put in place a system that assumes such a declaration? Learn about the bell shaped performance curve to understand that the group of people who produce the largest output are often the most unrecognized and angry. Companies that emphasize reward and recognition to their best performers will overlook the hardest and most loyal employees and then want to punish people for cheating on numbers simply to keep their jobs. Is it any surprise that these same companies end up fighting off lawsuits and labor unions? For instance, how does any company know how many phone calls or sales referrals per day it takes to keep a customer loyal? Of course the point is that the workers of today were the children of yesterday; pinholed into limited performance expectations by parents, teachers, and academic systems. If you had limited artistic skills, how did it feel to be told you were an "D" student? Is it any different for the child whose brain doesn't do well at math? Each child deserves to be acknowledged for who they are and what they can accomplish as individuals and that takes more effort than what we see in today's public schools. Now we have the most outrageous example of rewards run amok-schools and teachers being rewarded for increased grades and test scores. Only a few years later we find out that the grades were falsely reported and teachers complain that they spend all their class time preparing students for tests. Go figure or just read Alfie.
Rating:
Summary: Missed the "gravy" train
Review: Alfie Kohn missed the train on this one. As others have pointed out on this website, he confused reinforcers with rewards. What's surprising is that he did this even after (apparently) reading through Skinner's books and even interviewing him. Nevertheless, nobody will accuse Mr. (Dr.?) Kohn of being hard-hearted: He, at least, finds reinforcement in sticking up for the other viewpoint, making us humans feel important again. Skinner probably knew in his heart and head that comparing humans to radishes (we are only here to carry and pass on genes) would not appeal to most people (punishing). Yet, this is what biology has given us: this is our main purpose, the sound and fury notwithstanding. Alfie (What's it all about?) at least tries to prop up our little egos again, and some of us need that. I found Skinner's viewpoint (in his interview with Alfie) to be close to the Buddhist viewpoint (no egos, no fear of death, et cetera). It also reflects such viewpoints as expressed by biologists in their analyses of human moral systems. Anyway, this book is still worth reading, if only for Skinner's interview in the appendix. Diximus.
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