Peter Gray, 2013, 288

“Our children spend their days being passively instructed, and made to sit still and take tests often against their will. We call this imprisonment schooling, yet wonder why kids become bored and misbehave. Even outside of school children today seldom play and explore without adult supervision, and are afforded few opportunities to control their own lives. The result: anxious, unfocused children who see schooling and life as a series of hoops to struggle through.”

In a clean and direct style, this book draws on the most relevant research in the fields of development psychology and anthropology, in support of a model of school based on non directive learning. As well as an expert on learning and play, the author is father to a child educated at Sudbury Valley, one of the oldest democratic schools in the United States.