By Peter Gray Ph.D. Freedom to Learn Every summer we hear from educators about the “summer slide” in academic learning (e.g. here and here). The claim is that children lose much of what they gained from school during the summer break, so time is lost catching up in the fall. Some even […]
Children benefit from previous understanding of spoken words before reading them. Africa Studio/Shutterstock Children’s oral vocabulary – their knowledge of the sounds and meanings of words – is strongly positively associated with their reading all the way through school. Understanding this relationship is important for making children’s reading as strong […]
By PATRICK FARENGA / GWS A homeschooling father and a journalist teamed up to write about the current state of homeschooling in America based on published scholarly research. Their effort provides an interesting snapshot about what is going on with politics, educators, researchers, and parents who are interested in homeschooling in […]
By Peter Gray Ph.D. As regular readers of this blog know, I’m an advocate for Self-Directed Education. My research and that of others convinces me that Self-Directed Education works, is eminently practical, and is far less trouble to everyone than the coercive educational system that we all consider “standard.” Self-Directed Education, […]
BY Peter Gray Ph.D.Freedom to Learn “Suppose you, magically, were part of a committee charged with developing, completely from scratch, a school system for our modern times. You and the other committee members realize that before designing the structure, you need a clear idea of the purpose of schools. And let’s […]
By PATRICK FARENGA Homeschoolers are often criticized for depriving their childen, particularly teenagers, of group socialization and for keeping them out of the real world, ensconced in a bubble of parent-controlled choices. This ill-informed opinion has not matched our personal experiences of homeschooling and there is plenty evidence that giving young […]
Why not ask a parent to play a problem-solving video game with you? Shutterstock/Alan Ingram This is an article from Curious Kids, a new series for children. The Conversation is asking kids to send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome – serious, weird or […]
Those with screen time of more than four hours per day were three-and-a-half times likelier to sleep fewer than five hours at night, a probe found. (Jack Frog / shutterstock.com) You’re tired of fighting with your kids to put the iPad down during dinner or having to skulk around to […]
By Idzie Desmarais, a 20-something year old lifelong learner who lives in Montreal, Quebec. As unschooling in particular and homeschooling in general become ever more widespread, the rumblings of unease from everyone not unschooling (or homeschooling) also seem to get louder: wait, why isn’t there more oversight? These families could […]
Almost every star has planets – so there are more planets in our galaxy than there are stars. NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle, CC BY-SA From Curious Kids, a new series for children. The Conversation is asking kids to send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome […]