Freedom to Learn

The roles of play and curiosity as foundations for learning

Peter Gray, a research professor of psychology at Boston College, is a specialist in developmental and evolutionary psychology and author of an introductory textbook, Psychology. See full bio

July 23, 2008, Child Development

Comments on "Children Educate Themselves II: We All Know That’s True for Little Kids"

Children Educate Themselves II: We All Know That’s True for Little Kids

By Peter Gray on July 23, 2008 in Freedom to Learn

Have you ever stopped to think about how much children learn in their first few years of life, before they start school, before anyone tries in any systematic way to teach them anything? Next time you are in viewing range of a child under the age of about five years old, sit back and watch for awhile. You're in for a treat. Read More

Play Does Not End at 5 or 6 If Free

Submitted by Darren Richmond on July 28, 2008 - 9:26pm.

As a parent, I completely agree with your assessment that free children do not lose their aptitude for spontaneous learning at 5 or 6. My eldest daughter is 6 and her interest in learning is expanding dramatically. As she learns more and matures, her intensity and focus on play increases and broadens, so play and learning are not less attractive to her, but much more so. She gets more pleasure out of opening a restaurant at 6 than she did running a horse stable at 4 because she has learned (on her own) food prep, math, writing and organizational skills that she thinks add to the fun. It is the freedom to explore newly acquired skills that seems to make play and learning so much fun for older kids (and us older fogies).

learning in freedom

Submitted by Denise Deeves on July 30, 2008 - 7:15pm.

I'm so pleased to have come across your articles here. I'm a parent of an 'always free' (we call it unschooled) child who is now 9 year old. She amazes me every minute with her voracious appetite for knowledge and her intense curiosity. She is constantly learning something, and unlike her 'schooled' friends, she LOVES acquiring knowlege :) She taught herself to read around 5, just by a combination of being read to lots, loving the stories, making connections, and asking questions about letters and sounds, etc. Another interesting thing is that since we don't divide into grades, she is learning things way outside what the school system would allow. She doesn't have to wait until she reaches a certain grade to learn something NOW. :)

Our house is virtually a museum, which we continue to bring interesting things into to pique her interest...kits, books maps, globes, art supplies of all kinds, things to build, make, create, experiment with. Along side of all this, we have a huge homeschooling network in our area, so there are way too many opportunities for socialization LOL. Beside her sleepovers with girlfriends, we are constantly doing things with the families in our group...going on field trips, or co-ops, or museums, or park days, or going wherever sounds interesting! Our unschooling as a family has also made us all closer...more connected as we ALL are loving to learn (and we don't separate learning from life...or divide learning into subjects or categories..it just IS.

Interestingly enough, we just had a fun, made up holiday called "Learn Nothing Day" (a sort of mock break because we are always learning whether we try or not) which was, of course, a total failure .

It's sad that so many people are totally brain-washed by the school system (or is it societal?) to believe that children CAN'T learn or WON'T learn without someone else 'teaching' them. Most can't seem to wrap their brains around the idea that people learn best when they're interested and motivated from within. . ARGH!

Anyway...thanks for your recognizing natural learning and writing about it. It's an amazing and wonderful life, this unschooling life!

Warmly,
A parent who knows the truth and seeks it for her child, too.

Independence

Submitted by Peter Gray on August 2, 2008 - 2:59pm.

Peter Gray Denise, thank you for your comments here. I do have a question. With homeschooling, does it take special effort to keep yourself out of your daughter's way? I'm wondering what you do to be sure that she has ample time to learn to deal with other people without being able to look to you or other family members for help? I know that this is a common question asked of home-schoolers. I ask it sincerely; it sounds like you might have an answer. My best wishes to you and your daughter, Peter

Are you asking about her

Submitted by Denise Deeves on August 2, 2008 - 10:01pm.

Are you asking about her socializing without us around? Like if she were on a playground situation at school with only a couple of teachers viewing from afar? :) When we go places with other homeschoolers or unschoolers, usually the kids do their thing and the adults do theirs nearby...we're there but separate. Nearby if needed, you know? Of course some families have babies and toddlers that need more attention but the older kids are off playing, the toddlers are usually in a sandbox or something :) And when our DD has a playdate or sleepover, etc., I'd say that most of the time they are on their own in the house or yard, and only call me if they need assistance. Other times they include me in the fun of whatever they're doing.

But, you know when children are really young and haven't developed empathy yet? We absolutely didn't 'stay out of her way' back then...she obviously needed information and we practiced what we called emotion coaching. I'd read a ton of authors to guide us in how we wanted to raise our DD....Alfie Kohn, Marshall Rosenberg, John Holt, A.S. Neill, Mindful parenting books, TCS books by Jan Fortune-Wood...unschooling books by pioneers (I think the Unprocessed Child was the first unschooling book I read) well, the list goes on and on along those lines ;) So we had those tools early on and we practiced those (are still practicing those). She also saw us (and heard us because we'd say it out loud) paying attention to people, their emotions, their reactions, etc. and learned by that modeling. We talk about and modeled kindness and compassion, etc. About the 'golden rule/karma' give what you want to come back to you stuff. So as she grows we've shifted to merely observing and only step in to offer assistance/advice when she or one of the other children asks. Or if something happened that she didn't feel went well or she was confused about, she'll ask later and we discuss it. Because of the way she's been raised so far, we have this trust and openness between us that I cherish so much.

These days there's not as much asking for help. As she is maturing and getting her own tools in her toolbox, she's gotten very good at handling herself w/others all on her own (both people she knows AND those she doesn't). But I'm happy that she still likes to talk about conversations, etc., she's had with others. She's very bright, and funny and very astute. I've noticed that strangers we come in contact with are very surprised at how talkative, confident and engaging she is with them. She doesn't need our help there at all...I enjoy listening to her converse with people...she's a hoot, really.

I'm not sure if this is what you're asking? It's late and I fear my thoughts are all over the place tonight :)

psihologia copilului

Submitted by psihologia copilului on November 3, 2008 - 12:15am.

"Their learning comes naturally; it results from their instincts to play, explore, and observe others around them. But to say that it comes naturally is not to say that it comes effortlessly. Infants and young children put enormous energy into their learning."
thank you for this post, regards

let's not over-glorify humanity or children

Submitted by Rob H. on February 19, 2009 - 5:08pm.

I think it is a decadent Western fashion trend to over-glorify humanity and/or children, something akin to the 18th century over-glorification of the noble savage who as it turns out was about as noble - or not - as anyone else.

Also, this discussion suffers from unclear use of words such as "learn", "knowledge", "play", such that the various participants in the discussion are using semi-private definitions of words without making it clear that they are doing so, and so the various participants are not really discussing the same things and processes.

It's all a lot simpler. The West, and many parts of the rest of the world have been for many decades, even centuries, moving towards knowledge based economies. The "knowledge" is information that is necessary to be a worker in the technology fields that are our economies. Also there are some things - social matters - we must learn in order to get along in increasingly dense population centers.

Based on what an adult needs in terms of technology information (knowledge) in order to be a viable free agent in the free market system, a school curriculum is then reverse engineered and divided into levels of difficulty and delivered to children in schools according to the average ability of children of the various age groups to absorb and understand the information. And the info is structured grade to grade so that new info builds on previous info.

Much of what has to be learned is somewhat difficult, especially in the higher grades, and represents accumulated knowledge of many geniuses of past eras. The more difficult kinds of knowledge - math and the hard sciences - actually require extreme mental effort (for most people) and is akin to body building with regards sheer effort. This kind of learning is not fun and is engaged in for two reasons only: personal gain (increase in net worth) and vanity.

Learning is conquest and domination of others. There is nothing more motivating to any human than the allure of gain over others, because such gain portends fewer others imposing their wills upon one's own, and thus we move back closer to the world of our primordial ancestors who had such ample food supply and unchartered lands than no one could impose their will upon another.

That's it, end of story.

Either one becomes adept at aquiring and using this knowledge, and thus enjoys prosperity, or one does not and then, as is the current fashion, looks everywhere except to him/herself to assign blame for non-prosperity. (aka slave-morality)

I think it is somewhat unfortunate that we have to over-tire our minds with so much learning, but as we no longer live in bountiful jungles and forests where food was ever-present, and as we have over-birthed our species so that simple agricultural life can no longer sustain our numbers, there is no other, better choice these days except to learn and live by applied knowledge.

I would much rather swing from trees and eat bananas, and nap in the jungle canopy than engineer electronic gadgetry and take calculus refresher courses. What if liking learning is a mental disorder?

Not over-glorifying

Submitted by Peter Gray on February 23, 2009 - 12:24pm.

Dear Rob,

Thanks for taking the time to present your views. I hope you'll take a look at some of the other posts on this blog to see how I address many of the issues you raise. You might, for example, find the post on the Sudbury Valley School and the post on the definition of play to be particularly helpful in addressing some of the concerns you raise.

Your comments suggest that you would be quite happy to have some of your thoughts here shown to be wrong. Please do read further.

Best wishes,

Peter