[gohrt]

Alfie Kohn's book is about bribes being a bad strategy, not quite about punishment being a bad strategy.

The two are related, though. The article here is explaining how meaningful, relationship-building positive-reinforcement is an effective strategy.

Alfie Kohn's work is easy to misinterpret -- the title of his book mentions "gold stars" as a bad idea, but misses the meaning of a gold star. A gold star isn't a bribe in the sense of an "incentive program", it's a tangible expression of appreciation* -- which is what the article here argeus in favor of.

*as long as the star is its own reward, not some sort of currency used to buy rewards.