Internationally respected author Alfie Kohn, who Time magazine described as "perhaps the country's most outspoken critic of education's fixation on grades (and) test scores," will share his ideas on childrearing at "Beyond Discipline: From 'Doing to' to 'Working With'" on Wednesday, March 31 at Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. The 7 pm. lecture is sponsored by The United Way of Coastal Fairfield County and seventeen participating area preschools and is hosted by Fairfield University. Admission is free and tickets are required.

Kohn is the author of 11 books, including The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing and Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason. He has lectured widely on human behavior and his work has been profiled by The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Today, and Oprah.

At Fairfield, Kohn will share his ideas for working with children rather than doing things to them, and for making sure they know our care for them is unconditional. He will consider controlling techniques, such as time outs and positive reinforcement and whether they are counterproductive over the long haul.

This is the third annual event made possible through the partnership among Fairfield University, United Way, and the area preschools. A notable feature of this collaboration is that a speaker of Kohn's caliber can be brought to this area to reach out to early childhood educators and parents to support them as they care for and educate young children.

Admission is free to the public, but tickets are required. To obtain a ticket, contact Kimberly Noll at United Way of Coastal Fairfield County at (203) 339-6308 or knoll@unitedwaycfc.org by March 29. Tickets are also available to families and staff at participating preschools.

Posted On: 03-17-2010 10:03 AM

Volume: 42 Number: 331