Freedom to Learn

The roles of play and curiosity as foundations for learning.

Peter Gray Ph.D.

Infants' Instincts to Help, Share, and Comfort

Children know innately what they must do to develop well. This applies to physical, intellectual, emotional and social development—and also to moral development.

Toddlers Want to Help and We Should Let Them

Researchers have found that very young children innately want to help, and they will continue helping into adulthood.

Confessions of a Privileged White Guy

After reading yet another story of an innocent African American reported to police for looking suspicious, I thought of how my life would change if I were Black.

How We Deprive Children of the Physical Activity They Need

Trips to the park and adult-organized sports do not, and cannot, remedy the health problems caused by today's restrictions on children's freedom to play.

Libraries as Centers for Self-Directed Education

We have two types of publicly supported institutions whose purpose is education—schools and libraries. One tries to mold us; the other tries to respond to our needs..

Children’s & Teens’ Suicides Related to the School Calendar

The data are overwhelming. Suicide is a major cause of death in young people, and school is a major cause of young people's suicides.

Benefits of Play Revealed in Research on Video Gaming

If video gaming, like other forms of play, generally improves mental wellbeing, then we should find that gamers are mentally healthier, on average, than non-gamers. Are they?

Sense and Nonsense About Video Game Addiction

Popular media are full of scare headlines and articles about harmful effects of video gaming. But, what have researchers actually found? Is gaming really "Digital Heroin"?

Calling Trump Childish Shows How We Disrespect Children

We've taken long strides toward moving beyond the negative stereotyping of many groups. Let's now stop stereotyping children negatively, too.

The Joy and Sorrow of Rereading Holt’s "How Children Learn"

Holt was a brilliant observer of children in their everyday lives, who decades ago developed some profound insights into how children learn. I wish more people understood them.

Origins of Passionate Interests: A Survey of Readers

I'm asking here for your story about the development of a passionate interest. It might be a story about your own interest, that of your child, or that of anyone you know well.

Education’s Future: What Will Replace K-12 and College?

Our expensive, time-wasting, anxiety-producing system of education is an immense failure. In a rational world, what would replace it? Here is my answer to that question.

Another Example of Less Teaching Leading to More Learning

Williams identified the "worst" boys in a city of 300,000 people. He allowed them to pursue their own interests rather than attend classes, and here's what he found!

Mend the Gap Between Rich and Poor in School Achievement

The more rigid and authoritarian the school program is, the greater is the achievement gap between rich and poor. The more trusting and empowering it is, the smaller is the gap.

Facts and Fiction About the So-Called “Summer Slide”

Perhaps we should call it the summer ladder rather than slide. Children gain skills--especially in mathematical reasoning--in summer faster than during the school year.

Differences Between Self-Directed and Progressive Education

Self-Directed Education and progressive education both emphasize the education of the whole, unique person, but they differ greatly in how that education is best achieved.

Ideal Purposes of Schools: Readers Weigh In

About 170 readers responded to my request to describe the ideal purposes of schools. Their responses, taken all together, produce a vision that is worthy of serious consideration.

What Are the Proper Purposes of a System of Schooling?

Our compulsory school system was designed, long ago, for very specific purposes. Those purposes may now be outdated. What should be the purposes of a system of schooling today?

Social Norms, Moral Judgments, and Irrational Parenting

We are all conformists; it’s part of human nature. But sometimes our conformist nature leads us to do things that are downright silly or, worse, tragic.

Childrearing Beliefs Were Best Predictor of Trump Support

By assessing the mindset of Trump's earliest supporters, this political scientist predicted that Trump would do far better in the election than most at that time believed.

A Frugal Man’s Guide to Happiness and Health

If I decide to make a million dollars by publishing Gray’s Guide to Health, Happiness, and Financial Security, the key points will be: ....

Why Our Coercive System of Schooling Should Topple

Our coercive system of K-12 schooling has reached the breaking point. It's breaking too many kids. It never worked well, but we've increased its weight to a pathological level.

Instead of “Job Creation,” How About Less Work?

If we could solve the distribution problem, we could create a world in which we all worked much less and played much more. Is that a world to be desired? Yes!!

The Culture of Childhood: We’ve Almost Destroyed It

Here are the lessons that children learn best in interactions with other children, away from adults. If we want our children to become adults, we must preserve childhood culture.

Biological Foundations for Self-Directed Education

Self-directed education—as it occurs in unschooling families and at democratic schools--operates by allowing these four natural drives to flourish. ....

What If Medicine’s First Principle Were Also Education’s?

If standard schooling were a drug, it would have to come with a lot of warnings, if it were permitted at all. There's no evidence that it works better than a placebo.

Alison Gopnik’s Advice to Parents: Stop Parenting!

Everything Professor Gopnik says in The Gardener and the Carpenter indicates that our schooling system is very very wrong. So why does she point her finger at parents, not schools?

They Dream of School, and None of the Dreams Are Good

I don’t know why these particular dream themes are so common. How sad, though, that schooling, which is more or less required by law, produces a lifetime of bad dreams.

Do You Have a Recurring School Dream? Tell Me About It

Dreams about being a student in school are very common, even for people who have been out of school for a long time. If you have had such a dream more than once, describe it here.

Inverse Relationship Between GPA and Innovative Orientation

Ironically and tragically, rather than adapt our educational system to the needs of our modern times we have doubled down on the old system, so it is ...

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