Ep. 542: Peter Gray (Part One) – Foundations of Self-Directed Education

Part One of Three
Dr. Peter Gray is a research professor of psychology at Boston College, and author of Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life. Peter serves on the Organizing team for the Alliance For Self-Directed-Education. He also runs a blog on Psychology Today called Freedom to Learn, where he regularly explains and promotes self-directed education from a variety of angles.

Today Peter and I discuss how he distinguishes school from education, how school is disruptive to our "educative instincts," and the biological foundations of self-directed education. In other words, children come into the world biologically designed to learn. These foundations include:

– Curiosity: the need to make meaning out of our surroundings
– Playfulness: physical, but also related to risk-taking, language games, rules, imagination, logic, building, and using the tools of culture
– Sociability: a desire to share what is being learned
– Planfulness: thinking ahead, "self-directed executive functioning"

In part two we’ll discuss creativity and critical thinking.
In part three we’ll Peter’s vision for education in the future.

Related Shows:
[PODCAST] #504: Unenclosed Children and Self-Directed Learning – With Kerry McDonald
[PODCAST] #378: An Introduction To Self-Directed Learning and Living For Teens (with Nick Hazelton)
[PODCAST] #511: James Davis – Forced Learning Is Too Dangerous
[PODCAST] #513: Building Self Directed Learning Communities (With Diane Murphy)

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