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Oct 27, 2009

"When self-determined, people experience a sense of freedom to do what is interesting, personally important, and vitalizing." --Edward Deci & Richard Ryan

Questioning Self-Discipline

If there is one character trait whose benefits are endorsed by traditional and progressive educators alike, it may well be self-discipline. Just about everyone wants students to override their unconstructive impulses, resist temptation, and do what needs to be done. The only question is how best to accomplish this. Author and scholar Alfie Kohn further explores what he sees as the troubling theory and practice of self-discipline: "While I readily admit that it's good to be able to persevere at worthwhile tasks ... to inquire into what underlies the idea of self-discipline is to uncover serious misconceptions about motivation and personality, controversial assumptions about human nature, and disturbing implications regarding how things are arranged in a classroom or a society."