Free to Learn

My middle daughter's fifth birthday is coming up in a few days. I was at the local toy shop, Timeless Toys, and the clerk admired my choice in gifts. She said that she and her husband, both biologists, hoped that their two young sons became interested in science as they grew older. I told her that her children would be what she wanted them to be as long as they learned to love it when they were young. Which is why I was buying a microscope for my five-year-old daughter to "play" with.

Peter Gray's work in Free To Learn combines the hard sciences of child growth and development, psychology, learning & cognition, with the softer concepts found in sociology and anthropology to explain and promote a style of teaching that suits the needs of every child naturally.  While many of the concepts are shocking and difficult to grasp for those of us brought up in a post-industrial, public school world, they make a simple sense when viewed from a biological perspective.

While I feel comfortable with a more structured teaching and learning environment as do, I believe, many parents and children; many aspects of Gray's work have been very successful for my homeschooled adolescent.

I recommend this book to parents and educators who care about helping children learn to love the world.
For further reference, watch the documentary film, Free To Learn: A Radical Experiment in Education.