Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life

by Peter Gray

Overview

"All kids love learning. Most don't love school. That's a disconnect we've avoided discussing—until this lightning bolt of a book. If you've ever wondered why your curious kid is turning into a sullen slug at school, Peter Gray's Free to Learn has the answer. He also has the antidote." —Lenore Skenazy, author of Free-Range Kids

"This is an extraordinary and relevant book for unschooling parents, and those who care about the wellbeing of the children in their lives" —Home Education magazine

"Peter Gray forces us all to rethink our convictions on how schools should be designed ...” —Steven Pinker

A leading expert in childhood development makes the case for why self-directed learning — "unschooling" — is the best way to get kids to learn.

In Free to Learn, developmental psychologist Peter Gray argues that in order to foster children who will thrive in today's constantly changing world, we must entrust them to steer their own learning and development. Drawing on evidence from anthropology, psychology, and history, he demonstrates that free play is the primary means by which children learn to control their lives, solve problems, get along with peers, and become emotionally resilient. A brave, counterintuitive proposal for freeing our children from the shackles of the curiosity-killing institution we call school, Free to Learn suggests that it's time to stop asking what's wrong with our children, and start asking what's wrong with the system. It shows how we can act—both as parents and as members of society—to improve children's lives and to promote their happiness and learning.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465084999
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	02/10/2015
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	122,357
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Peter Gray is a research professor in the Department of Psychology at Boston College. The author of Psychology, a highly regarded college textbook, he writes a popular blog called Freedom to Learn for Psychology Today. He lives in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. What Have We Done to Childhood?

Chapter 2. The Play-Filled Lives of Hunter-Gatherer Children

Chapter 3. Why Schools Are What They Are: A Brief History of Education

Chapter 4 .Seven Sins of Our System of Forced Education

Chapter 5. Lessons from Sudbury Valley: Mother Nature Can Prevail in Modern Times

Chapter 6. The Human Education Instincts

Chapter 7. The Playful State of Mind

Chapter 8. The Role of Play in Social and Emotional Development

Chapter 9. Free Age Mixing: A Key Ingredient for Children’s Capacity for Self-Education

Chapter 10. Trusting Parenting in Our Modern World

Editorial Reviews

"Weaving together evidence from psychology, history, and anthropology, [Peter Gray] makes the case that compulsory schooling is not only misguided but deeply damaging, an affront to the playful instincts of childhood."—Psychology Today

In Free to Learn,a passionate paean to the kind of free play and free learning ... Peter Gray, an evolutionary psychologist at Boston College, makes a largely compelling case that children learn best when unencumbered by adult-imposed activities and institutions."—American Journal of Play

"Anyone who cares about learning should read Free to Learn. Gray’s book is a compelling and easy read; if everyone would read it with an open mind, a wholesale revolution in education (right through to university) would be the inevitable outcome."
 —Dissident Voice

"Free to Learn makes a good case for the importance of play as a renewable resource for school reform and transformation."—Spirituality & Practice

"We [Life learners] appreciate having someone who is a developmental psychologist and college professor understand so well— not to mention respect— the lives we're living."—Life Learning Magazine

"Peter also shows his overt support for unschooling as a true bright spot in western culture and details the results of his own survey of unschooling families. Whether you buy this book, borrow it or check it out of the library, this book is as important as any of John Holt's early books."
 —Home Education Magazine

“[Free to Learn is] a powerful agent of transformation. I'd like to put a copy in the hands of every parent, teacher, and policy maker.”
 —Mothering.com

“[E]nergetic…Gray powerfully argues that schools inhibit learning…. [Gray's] vivid illustrations of the ‘power of play' to shape an individual are bound to provoke a renewed conversation about turning the tide in an educational system that fosters conformity and inhibits creative thinking.”
 —Publishers Weekly

"Free to Learn stimulates a parent’s thinking about what kind of learning environment helps their child learn and adjust best, and then how to simulate that environment at home or out of school if it doesn’t exist among their school options...Gray has caused me to re-focus my grand-parenting activities in ways that will encourage freedom of learning and play. We may not be able to change the world, but we can help our children adapt better to it."—PyschCentral

"Peter Gray is one of the world's experts on the evolution of childhood play, and applies his encyclopedic knowledge of psychology, and his humane voice, to the pressing issue of educational reform. Though I am not sure I agree with all of his recommendations, he forces us all to rethink our convictions on how schools should be designed to accommodate the ways that children learn.”—Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works

"A compelling and most enjoyable read. Gray illustrates how removing play from childhood, in combination with increasing the pressures of modern day schooling, paradoxically reduces the very skills we want our children to learn. The decline of play is serious business.”—Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, author of Einstein Never Used Flash Cards and A Mandate for Playful Learning in Preschool

“All kids love learning. Most don't love school. That's a disconnect we've avoided discussing—until this lightning bolt of a book. If you've ever wondered why your curious kid is turning into a sullen slug at school, Peter Gray's Free to Learn has the answer. He also has the antidote.”—Lenore Skenazy, author of Free-Range Kids

“The modern educational system is like a wish made in a folk tale gone horribly wrong. Peter Gray's Free to Learn leads us out of the maze of unforeseen consequences to a more natural way of letting children educate themselves. Gray's message might seem too good to be true, but it rests upon a strong scientific foundation. Free to Learn can have an immediate impact on the children in your life.”—David Sloan Wilson, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology, Binghamton University and author of Evolution for Everyone

“Free to Learn is a courageous and profoundly important book. Peter Gray joins the likes of Richard Louv and Alfie Kohn in speaking out for a more humane, compassionate and effective approach to education.”—Frank Forencich, author of Exuberant Animal and Change Your Body, Change the World

From the Publisher

Developmental psychologist Gray declares that “school is prison, but almost nobody beyond school age says it.” In this energetic though repetitive manifesto, Gray powerfully argues that schools inhibit learning by “ with the development of personal responsibility and self-direction” by “turning learning into work” and reducing “diversity in skills and knowledge.” Gray suggests that children possess a natural instinct to educate themselves, and through unstructured play and exploration with individuals of all ages, they will blossom and develop into confident individuals. Drawing on various psychological case studies as well as an in-depth examination of the Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, Mass., Gray shows that children learning in “unschooled” environments demonstrate a deep desire to learn, as well as a capacity for self-control, and display feelings of anxiety and depression far less than students in a structured environment. Many educators and parents may find Gray’s ideas naïve and impractical, but his vivid illustrations of the “power of play” to shape an individual are bound to provoke a renewed conversation about turning the tide in an educational system that fosters conformity and inhibits creative thinking. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Psychology Today blogger Gray (Psychology/Boston Coll.) argues the need for radical reforms in our educational system. Describing himself as "an evolutionary developmental psychologist," he rests his theory on the claim that hunter-gatherer societies offer an educational model for today. Many will agree with his contention that the lives of today's children are far too scripted, with excessive homework and play dates substituting for the free-wheeling play of decades past. "Free play is nature's means of teaching children that they are not helpless," writes Gray. His conclusion that formal schooling is an infringement on children's freedom and should be abolished is more controversial--even more so since he grounds it in a mythical golden age preceding the invention of agriculture. The author makes the dubious suggestion that his assertions represent "compelling evidence that children's natural, hunter-gatherer ways of learning are sufficient for education in our culture, if we provide conditions that are equivalent." Switching to modern times, Gray indicts formal education and compares schools to prisons. Charging that public education denies children their liberty "without just cause and due process," he contends that this interferes with their development of personal responsibility and robs them of the motivation to learn. The hierarchical nature of schools fosters "shame, hubris, cynicism, and cheating," as well as bullying. Gray's observation that mixing age groups can foster the educational process is intriguing, but his advocacy of radically transforming the role of teacher to that of a consultant is more controversial. The author's suggestion of the $600 billion savings to be had by eliminating public education suggests a libertarian political agenda, but it should make his proposals attractive, if not entirely convincing.

Kirkus Reviews