Greetings!

Peter Gray is a retired research psychologist who spent decades studying how children actually learn. His work has become the intellectual foundation for the Self-Directed Education movement, emphasizing how things like play are foundational to learning (especially at a young age).

In a recent Substack essay, he asks a puzzling question: If children come into the world biologically designed to educate themselves, then what are we doing for $16,000 per child per year on average?

Let's dive in.

THOUGHT: The Design Flaw
TREND: The Shift Is Happening
TOOL: Free to Learn

The Design Flaw

"Children come into the world biologically designed to educate themselves." – Peter Gray (My Vision for the Future of Education)

Kids arrive in the world curious, self-motivated, and obsessed with mastering new skills. Their curiosity, playfulness, sociability, and willfulness were all shaped by natural selection to serve the function of education.

So what do we do? At great expense, we put them in classrooms that shut off their learning instincts—quashing their curiosity, playfulness, sociability, and willfulness—and then condition them through systems of reward and punishment that play on hubris, shame, and fear.

We sometimes talk about the need to "take more control" over our kids' education. But what we really mean is this: whatever method, school, or approach you choose, the goal is to create an environment where kids can direct as much of their own education as possible.

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The Shift Is Happening

Peter Gray writes: "The cat is slowly scratching its way out of the bag." More families are figuring this out every year. Companies are dropping degree requirements. College enrollment peaked in 2011 and has been declining since. But what replaces these?

Gray's three-phase alternative vision is simple:

Phase I (ages 0-18): Discovery. Self-chosen play and exploration in age-mixed learning centers. Let kids pursue interests, develop skills, and start thinking about how they'll support themselves as adults.

Phase II: Career exploration. Before specialized training, work in real settings. Want to be a doctor? Work as a medical assistant first. Interested in law? Spend time in a law office. Find out if you actually like the work before spending years and thousands of dollars training for it.

Phase III: Credentialing. For work requiring proven competence (surgeons, electricians, etc.), get trained and tested. But only after you know what you're getting into.

Read Gray's full article

Free to Learn

If you're new to Gray's work, start with Free to Learn—the definitive book on Self-Directed Education and "unleashing the play instinct." If you learn better while driving or doing dishes, try the audiobook.

His Substack, "Play Makes Us Human," is weekly reading for us at the OpenEd Daily. Check it out and consider subscribing!

Free to Learn (Book) | Audiobook | Peter Gray's Substack