Notices by Alfie Kohn (alfiekohn@sciences.social), page 2

Kafka predicted A.I.

To Trump et al., the value of an education is measured purely in monetary terms: https://newrepublic.com/post/213446/trump-litmus-tests-student-loans-degrees-income. But this is common on the right: A very similar anti-intellectual sensibility was heard from Reagan (https://medium.com/politically-speaking/the-republican-assault-on-education-700b2cd16a34) and, well, from Hitler (https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-ways-to-destroy-democracy/).

In case you haven't checked in lately to see whether Bezos's firing of a third of the Washington Post's staff earlier this year has affected the quality of its coverage of politics, foreign affairs, and other breaking news, here's a screenshot from its homepage today:

If you read only one article from 1949 today, make it this gem by Robert Benchley called "How to Get Things Done." It's not only very funny; the strategy he describes actually sort of works: https://adam.nz/how-to-get-things-done

Sure, raising children makes you aware of your limitations. But nothing keeps you humble quite like being informed repeatedly that you can't correctly identify and click on photos of crosswalks, buses, or bicycles.

The misplaced preoccupation with "rigor" in education may be related to an incicisve insight by early-childhood expert Lilian Katz: "We overestimate children academically and underestimate them intellectually."
Her related observation is that early-childhood classrooms are typically far too focused on (developmentally inappropriate) academic skills while simultaneously being places that are insufficiently intellectual.

Interesting insight from social scientist Stephanie Coontz (paraphrased in a review of her new book): A stereotypical and often toxic version of masculinity assumes that men and women must be opposites, but "manhood was once counterposed more against childhood than womanhood. Maturity was what turned a boy into a man - the development of self-control and judgment, not aggressiveness."

Apropos of A.I.:
"When the American biotech industry became worried about the negative potential of genetic engineering tools in the 1990s, it didn’t rush ahead to clone humans before China could get there; it instead lobbied Congress and relevant international bodies to limit the most odious possibilities for these innovations. The possibility that another actor might do something bad doesn’t give you the moral right to do something similar":
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/opinion/ai-dangerous-openai-anthropic.html?unlocked_article_code=1.s1A.dLH_.mnIvY4nyoCLk&smid=url-share

Jen Sorenson nails it, as always.

New research shows - not surprisingly - that Americans, and particularly conservatives, tend to automatically assume that any effort to promote diversity in admissions or hiring implies a reduction in the quality of those selected, even when merit is explicitly emphasized: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-22438-001

Has anyone ever written a better sentence than this one by Ring Lardner?

“’Shut up,’ he explained.”

"Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so, whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose—and you allow him to make war at pleasure."
-Abraham Lincoln

Just what you'd expect from a *human* judge....

Can you find the common denominator?

The psychoanalyst Erich Fromm recalled that, as a boy, "whenever someone told me he was a businessman I always felt a little embarrassed. I'd think: God, he must feel awful having to admit that he's not doing anything else with his life except earning money."

Much has been written about Trump's fascist aesthetic: gold and marble everywhere, an enormous arch, huge banners featuring Dear Leader's scowling face on government buildings, and so on. But a spectacle sponsored by the regime in which two people in a cage savagely pummel each other, the goal being to cause agony and/or injury to the point of immobility, for our entertainment? This brings us closer to the core of a true fascist sensibility.

If you've ever taught, had a child in, or just attended high school, you won't want to miss the new episode of Kohn's Zone: "'Progressive High School' Is Not an Oxymoron," featuring a conversation with democratic education scholar and longtime principal George Wood: https://www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/

I mean, sure, when you list what Paxton has done like that, he doesn't look so hot. But weigh all his crimes and scandals against the facts that his opponent doesn't always eat meat and thinks trans people are human beings.
https://thebarbedwire.com/2026/02/17/ken-paxton-scandal-timeline/

When xenophobia trumps science:
https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-researchers-face-new-restrictions-publishing-foreign-collaborators

Intriguing: Research finds that the rank-and-file workers who carry out the immoral orders of authoritarian regimes usually aren't motivated by either ideological commitment or fear. They're "loyal losers" who are offered a way to salvage their careers: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/world/americas/actually-democracy-dies-in-hr.html?unlocked_article_code=1.j1A.A767.yRU-KeNoO9i_&smid=url-share.
Obvious implications for the U.S.: