Books
What Schools Could Be by Ted Dintersmith
Innovation expert Ted Dintersmith took an unprecedented trip across America, visiting all fifty states in a single school year. He originally set out to raise awareness about the urgent need to reimagine education to prepare students for a world marked by innovation--but America's teachers one-upped him. All across the country, he met teachers in ordinary settings doing extraordinary things, creating innovative classrooms where children learn deeply and joyously as they gain purpose, agency, essential skillsets and mindsets, and real knowledge.
Free to Learn by Peter Gray
In Free to Learn, developmental psychologist Peter Gray argues that our children, if free to pursue their own interests through play, will not only learn all they need to know, but will do so with energy and passion. Children come into this world burning to learn, equipped with the curiosity, playfulness, and sociability to direct their own education. Yet we have squelched such instincts in a school model originally developed to indoctrinate, not to promote intellectual growth.
Dumbing us Down by John Taylor Gatto
Thirty years in New York City’s public schools led John Gatto to the sad conclusion that compulsory schooling does little but teach young people to follow orders like cogs in an industrial machine.
Self Design: Nurturing Genius Through Natural Learning by Brent Cameron
SelfDesign, a methodology developed by Brent Cameron over the past 23 years, is much more than another take-off from traditional teaching methods. It is instead a philosophy and a practice based in the belief that children are natural learners. Cameron uses individualized strategies, specific language tools, and a focus on the positive to shift the very premise on which education is built. Through his stories of learners and families he takes the reader on a tour of a new paradigm for learning-the art and science of SelfDesign.
The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education by Grace Lewellyn
An estimated 700,000 American children are now taught at home. This book tells teens how to take control of their lives and get a "real life." Young people can reclaim their natural ability to teach themselves and design a personalized education program. Grace Llewellyn explains the entire process, from making the decision to quit school, to discovering the learning opportunities available.
Meaningful Making: Projects and Inspirations for Fab Labs and Makerspaces by Paulo Blikstein
This book contains project ideas, articles, and best practices from educators at the forefront of making and hands-on education. The Stanford University FabLearn Fellows are a group of K-12 educators teaching in Fab Labs, makerspaces, classrooms, libraries, community centers, and museums--all with the goal of making learning more meaningful.
Innovation expert Ted Dintersmith took an unprecedented trip across America, visiting all fifty states in a single school year. He originally set out to raise awareness about the urgent need to reimagine education to prepare students for a world marked by innovation--but America's teachers one-upped him. All across the country, he met teachers in ordinary settings doing extraordinary things, creating innovative classrooms where children learn deeply and joyously as they gain purpose, agency, essential skillsets and mindsets, and real knowledge.
Free to Learn by Peter Gray
In Free to Learn, developmental psychologist Peter Gray argues that our children, if free to pursue their own interests through play, will not only learn all they need to know, but will do so with energy and passion. Children come into this world burning to learn, equipped with the curiosity, playfulness, and sociability to direct their own education. Yet we have squelched such instincts in a school model originally developed to indoctrinate, not to promote intellectual growth.
Dumbing us Down by John Taylor Gatto
Thirty years in New York City’s public schools led John Gatto to the sad conclusion that compulsory schooling does little but teach young people to follow orders like cogs in an industrial machine.
Self Design: Nurturing Genius Through Natural Learning by Brent Cameron
SelfDesign, a methodology developed by Brent Cameron over the past 23 years, is much more than another take-off from traditional teaching methods. It is instead a philosophy and a practice based in the belief that children are natural learners. Cameron uses individualized strategies, specific language tools, and a focus on the positive to shift the very premise on which education is built. Through his stories of learners and families he takes the reader on a tour of a new paradigm for learning-the art and science of SelfDesign.
The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education by Grace Lewellyn
An estimated 700,000 American children are now taught at home. This book tells teens how to take control of their lives and get a "real life." Young people can reclaim their natural ability to teach themselves and design a personalized education program. Grace Llewellyn explains the entire process, from making the decision to quit school, to discovering the learning opportunities available.
Meaningful Making: Projects and Inspirations for Fab Labs and Makerspaces by Paulo Blikstein
This book contains project ideas, articles, and best practices from educators at the forefront of making and hands-on education. The Stanford University FabLearn Fellows are a group of K-12 educators teaching in Fab Labs, makerspaces, classrooms, libraries, community centers, and museums--all with the goal of making learning more meaningful.
Articles, Blogs, and websites
Education Reimagined
An inspiring manifesto signed by some of the biggest players in the public and private education worlds. "We see the current school-centered education system transformed into one that's truly learner-centered. It is a future with thriving learners surrounded by engaged and dedicated educators, parents, and communities. We offer our vision as a beacon for all those dedicated to transforming education in America."
Freedom to Learn by Peter Gray
Children come into the world with instinctive drives to educate themselves. These include the drives to play and explore. This blog is primarily about these drives and ways by which we could create learning environments that optimize rather than suppress them.
The Overprotected Kid by Hanna Rosin
A preoccupation with safety has stripped childhood of independence, risk taking, and discovery—without making it safer. A new kind of playground points to a better solution.
Carol Black
Carol Black is a writer and filmmaker, creator with her husband Neal Marlens of the Emmy-award-winning series The Wonder Years and director of the documentary film Schooling the World . She studied education and literature at Swarthmore College and UCLA, and after the birth of her children, left her career in the entertainment industry to become involved in the unschooling and alternative education movement and later to make independent nonprofit films. She has two grown daughters, neither of whom has ever taken a standardized test.
The Alliance for Self-Directed Education
Imagine what would happen if, instead of sending children to coercive schools where their natural ways of learning are curtailed, we provided them with the resources that would allow their creativity, playfulness, and other natural ways of learning to flourish. That is Self-Directed Education (SDE); education that derives from the self-chosen activities and life experiences of the learner.
An inspiring manifesto signed by some of the biggest players in the public and private education worlds. "We see the current school-centered education system transformed into one that's truly learner-centered. It is a future with thriving learners surrounded by engaged and dedicated educators, parents, and communities. We offer our vision as a beacon for all those dedicated to transforming education in America."
Freedom to Learn by Peter Gray
Children come into the world with instinctive drives to educate themselves. These include the drives to play and explore. This blog is primarily about these drives and ways by which we could create learning environments that optimize rather than suppress them.
The Overprotected Kid by Hanna Rosin
A preoccupation with safety has stripped childhood of independence, risk taking, and discovery—without making it safer. A new kind of playground points to a better solution.
Carol Black
Carol Black is a writer and filmmaker, creator with her husband Neal Marlens of the Emmy-award-winning series The Wonder Years and director of the documentary film Schooling the World . She studied education and literature at Swarthmore College and UCLA, and after the birth of her children, left her career in the entertainment industry to become involved in the unschooling and alternative education movement and later to make independent nonprofit films. She has two grown daughters, neither of whom has ever taken a standardized test.
The Alliance for Self-Directed Education
Imagine what would happen if, instead of sending children to coercive schools where their natural ways of learning are curtailed, we provided them with the resources that would allow their creativity, playfulness, and other natural ways of learning to flourish. That is Self-Directed Education (SDE); education that derives from the self-chosen activities and life experiences of the learner.