About Learning Stan Pinsent

Peter Gray has spent much of his career demonstrating how children learn through play. His book “Free to Learn” helped fuel the unschooling movement - but will the educational mainstream ever shift in response?

This episode explores Peter’s hopes that we will reach a tipping point - beyond which self-directed learning becomes the norm - and his fears about what may prevent it.

Timings:

01:30 Free to Learn

17:40 The Tipping Point theory of social change

36:14 Peter’s education journey

53:02 A personal update from Stan

Links:

Peter Gray is the author of Free to Learn: https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/peter-gray/free-to-learn/9780465084999/

What happens to graduates of Sudbury Valley School? https://www.self-directed.org/resource/gray-and-chanoff-1986/

Fact check: long-term trends suggests the US home-school rate is around 5%, but a Covid-era survey suggested 10% of parents intended to home-school: https://news.gallup.com/poll/317852/parents-satisfaction-child-education-slips.aspx

How should we measure educational success? Stan speaks to Ka Ya Lee, a PhD candidate from Harvard University, to discuss the capability approach.

Currently, we mainly measure success by scores on standardised tests. Our fixation with results has warped the way we treat young people, and says little about children’s wellbeing. It gives the child no say in how they want to grow as a person. Is there another way?

Pioneered by economist Amartya Sen, the capability approach to human welfare “emphasizes the importance of freedom of choice, individual heterogeneity and the multi-dimensional nature of welfare”*. Ka Ya is asking: can the capability approach be applied to education?

* The capability approach on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capability_approach

Stan speaks to May Ling Thomas about Integrity. What does it mean as a parent, a teacher or a human, to stay true to one’s values?

May Ling is a home-educating Mum with powerful parenting convictions. She believes in letting go of damaging expectations about how things “should” be done so that we can put the love back in our relationships.

What does integrity mean for parents? Should we care what other people think? Should we worry for our children’s futures? Does integrity mean staying true to your feelings or to your intellectual ideals?

Guest Thomas Godfrey-Faussett turns a critical eye to season 3 of About Learning.

The discussion centres around “balance”. How much autonomy should children have? What are the limits of democratic parenting? Is there a place for indoctrination in education?

A former teacher, Thom recently completed an MA in Comparative Education at Oxford and is now involved in a number of research projects.

Rosalyn Spencer, author of “Why I Started a Small School”, shares her experience.

What’s so good about small schools? What can be achieved within the state school system? What is human scale education?

Setting up a small school: online workshop
https://1abf28c1-2610-4f9d-adbf-9ef0182664e4.filesusr.com/ugd/1ad436_f9ac205ee9194cab8d987190a84573a8.docx?dn=new%20flyer.docx

Why I Started a Small School by Rosalyn Spencer:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Started-Small-School-nurturing-ebook/dp/B00C0XU3GQ

English schools are becoming more authoritarian. In this panel discussion, a group of educators discuss the reasons for this disturbing trend, and ask: what can we do to fight back?

The panel:
Emily Charkin, founder of Wilderness Wood.
Meena Wood, former HMI and Principal and author of 'Secondary Curriculum Transformed'
Derry Hannam, advocate of school democracy and former OFSTED inspector.
Nicole Levy, Sociology & Economics teacher studying for an MA in Social Justice & Education at UCL.