Pursuit of passions requires time for play and self-directed education. By Peter Gray Ph.D. Freedom to Learn This post is a somewhat modified version of the transcript of a TEDx talkI delivered in May, 2018. Follow your passions. That’s what almost every commencement speaker says to the new graduates. It’s almost cruel. If all you’ve […]
By Idzie Desmarais, I’m Unschooled. Yes, I can write This post originally appeared on my Patreon in March ’17. Occasionally I’ll share an older Patreon post on the main blog, but most of them remain accessible only to patrons. Join me there to see all of them! I talk a lot about ways that […]
If we could stop the high levels of bullying that adolescents with a disability experience, we could make a big difference to their lives. from shutterstock Almost half of the poorer mental health we see in teenagers with a disability is due to bullying, our new research shows. If we could […]
Students’ sense of belonging at school is linked to how well they do at school. Shutterstock A report released today by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), the managers of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in Australia, explores Australian students’ sense of belonging. This has been shown to play a big part in […]
By Peter Gray Ph.D. Freedom to Learn Psychiatric emergencies and youth suicides rise sharply with the school year. I am not in the mood today – bored teenager boy sitting by the wall We get very upset by school shootings, as well we should. Every such instance is a national tragedy. We […]
The lack of skilled teachers is the biggest problem, the report found GETTY IMAGES More than half of England’s secondary schools, 54%, did not offer GCSE computer science in 2015-16, a report from the Royal Society has found. It urged the government to increase spending on computer education tenfold over […]
BY Peter Gray Ph.D.Freedom to Learn Delinquent boys made huge academic gains when freed from classroom lessons. Some of the most fascinating experiments in education occurred in the 1920s and ‘30s, and almost nobody talks about them today. That was an era when progressive ideas about education were in the air. Even […]
By Peter Gray PH.D. We know how to reduce the school achievement gap, but we do the opposite. Our compulsory public school system is supposed to be “the great equalizer.” By providing the same schooling to everyone, it is supposed to promote equal opportunities for young people regardless of their […]
As a community we need proactive, positive strategies to reduce youth self-harm and suicide. Shutterstock Suicide and self-harm remain taboo topics in schools, despite the fact youth suicide has reached a ten year high. Recent statistics show around eight children and young people die by suicide each week in Australia. Around one […]
Students are more reluctant to seek help from teachers than from friends or parents. from www.shutterstock.com In Australia approximately one student in five is bullied at school every few weeks or more often. Many of these students suffer serious emotional and psychological harm, such as persistent anxiety, depression and suicidal […]