Mother Nature's Pedagogy: Biological Foundations for Children's Self-Directed Education

by Peter Gray

Children come into the world biologically designed to educate themselves. Their natural curiosity, playfulness, sociability, willfulness, adventurousness, tendency to look ahead, and desire to do well in the world were all shaped, by natural selection, to serve the function of education. In this collection of essays, developmental psychologist Peter Gray describes, with research evidence, how these natural tendencies play themselves out in children who are not schooled but, instead, are allowed ample time and opportunity to exercise their natural educative drives. He explains, especially, how children learn from one another when allowed to play freely in settings where they are not segregated by age. In addition, he presents evidence that children come into the world with prosocial drives-to help, share, and comfort-that grow ever stronger when adults allow them to grow. He also discusses ADHD as a natural and valuable personality variation, not a disorder, which causes problems in the typical school environment but does not interfere with Self-Directed Education.

Genres: Parenting, Education, Nonfiction

172 pages, Paperback

Published October 15, 2020

About the author

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Reviews

[Michelle Crunkleton-Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Gray is an important voice in education.

[NEVEN · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I copy / pasted about 70% of the book as quotes to my family and friends while reading it.

This collection of published essays is probably the best short book about biological arguments for Self-Directed Education.

How Can Children Learn Bravery in an Age of Overprotection? chapter is probably the most important chapter in the entire book, and in it Gray explains how the recent increase in helicopter parenting and distrust in children is damaging them for life.

I particularly liked the The Joy and Sorrow of Rereading Holt's "How Children Learn" chapter. In it, the author explains common misconceptions about learning and child development, particularly why fantasy is important and not damaging.

Toddlers Want to Help and We Should Let Them chapter explains why we all hated helping around the house.

If you have a kid and are on the verge of discovering how traditional education psychologically damages our children and sets them up for failure in their adult life, do yourself a favor and buy all four recent Gray's books.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

1st of the 4 Psychology Today blog post collections. A lot of Free to Learn overlap, but 🤷🏻‍♀️