By Peter Gray Ph.D. Freedom to Learn Achievement pressure promotes mental anguish at the so-called “best schools.” Many parents strive mightily to get their children into a high-achieving high school. A high-achieving school (or HAS) is defined as one where students score high on standardized tests and a high percentage go on […]
By Peter Gray Ph.D. Freedom to Learn What little children need is play, care, and love, not school. The Biden administration has announced an ambitious, expensive plan for universal preschool for three- and four-year-olds. Some of the language in the White House (2021) announcement sounds comforting: Source: We Heart It. […]
(Credit: Newman Studio/Shutterstock) When it comes to raising kids, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Kids forbidden to talk to strangers. Kids afraid to go inside a store on their own. Kids terrified of cooking an egg for fear of burning the house down. These are examples Lenore Skenazy, who pioneered the […]
By Peter Gray Ph.D. Freedom to Learn Early academic pressure creates learning blocks, diagnosed as disorders. Source: Flickr Creative Commons Our standard schools operate on the assumption that all children of a given age should learn the same lessons, in the same ways, at the same time. That assumption is […]
How a learning disorder diagnosis can become a self-fulfilling prophesy. By Peter Gray Ph.D. Freedom to Learn Source:Randen_pederson_creative_commons Many years ago, Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968) performed a fascinating experiment in elementary school classrooms. They led teachers to believe that a special test had revealed that certain students would […]
The lockdown provided children and parents time to learn they like one another. By Peter Gray Ph.D. Freedom to Learn Key Points: In surveys, children have reported feeling less anxious during the months of pandemic lockdown than they did previously. When asked to name one thing they liked about being in lockdowns, […]
By John Taylor Gatto”The Scientific Management of Children” The story / click image TOP of PAGE
Sometimes a fiction is repeated so often that people believe it’s true. By Peter Gray Ph.D. Freedom to Learn “Well, what about Lord of the Flies?” How often I have heard someone say that after I’ve talked about the value of children’s independent play, away from adults, or about a […]
By Peter Gray Ph.D. Freedom to Learn Parents say removing pressure is the key to their children’s learning to read. ADHD and dyslexia make kids hate reading, right? Wrong … I am often asked if Self-Directed Education works for children who are diagnosed with dyslexia. The usual assumption, in the special education world, […]
The Franklin Institute hosts astronomy activities to engage students in STEM through NASA’s TEAM II award. NASA’s Teams Engaging Affiliated Museums and Informal Institutions (TEAM II) program has selected three additional informal education organizations to promote learning in STEM with the goal of inspiring the next generation of explorers. The […]