Without school, children exhibited increased independence and responsibility.By By Peter Gray, Ph.D., a research professor at Boston College, author of Free to Learn When COVID-19 resulted in closures of schools and after-school activities for children, beginning generally in early March of this year, there were some dire predictions about the effects this […]

Steven Fons. Credit: Calle Schonning Ph.D. student Steven Fons’ Arctic research adventure, complicated by COVID-19. For Steven Fons, returning home to D.C. in June was like coming back from another planet. “It was totally surreal. The grass and the trees were greener than I remembered,” recalled Fons, an atmospheric and oceanic […]

By Peter Gray Ph.D. Freedom to Learn This is Part I of a series on the functions and malfunctions of shame. This seems like a ripe time in history to think about the emotion of shame. We are living in a period of renewed reckoning with the shame of the racist […]

Shutterstock Is time travel possible for humans? Jasmine, age 8, Canberra, ACT. Hi Jasmine. I wish! In books and movies, our favourite characters can use “time-turners” and treehouses to travel through time. Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy for people in real life. Let’s look at why. First, there are two types of […]

Shutterstock Most Australian children are stuck at home due to the outbreak of COVID-19. They need to find ways to socialise, do their school work, exercise and entertain themselves. It’s not surprising parents may be hearing “I’m bored” a lot more than before. People hate being bored. So much so […]

“As you can see, individual differences in writing can be seen as early as kindergarten,” says Cynthia Puranik, associate professor in the College of Education & Human Development. On her computer, she pulls up writing samples from two kindergarteners who were asked to print words that they know. One child […]

Do “dyslexic” children who leave conventional schooling learn to read? How? By Peter Gray Ph.D. Freedom to Learn In previous posts on this blog (here and here), I’ve written about how children in unschooling families or attending schools for self-directed education learn to read on their own, when they are not pressured and are […]

Views on school refusal depend on beliefs about children and human rights. By Peter Gray Ph.D. Freedom to Learn Every state and country where school is compulsory is faced with the problem commonly labeled school refusal. Everywhere, a significant number of kids strongly resist going to school and manage to skip a […]

Take a good look at it. It won’t look half as good in the morning. Brent Hofacker via Depositphotos Order pizza, and there’s a good chance it’s gone within hours. Something about that round wheel of dough, melted cheese, warm tomato sauce, and seemingly countless topping possibilities is simply irresistible. […]

Here’s my theory about why some early childhood programs help and others hurt. by Peter Gray Ph.D. Freedom to Learn Head Start was founded in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty and it has been going strong ever since. This past year the program enrolled about 1 […]