Fighting back against authoritarian schools

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.

Stan welcomes Emily Charkin who runs Wilderness Wood in East Sussex. The wood presents a radical alternative to school, providing space in which home-educated children learn, work and play. The discussion is wide-ranging: do schools help or hinder a sense of community? Is state education too academic? Are projects like WW just a middle-class indulgence? https://www.wildernesswood.org/ Mentioned In this episode: the Peckham Experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6aiCK3PGfs

Is free speech under threat in our universities? Stan speaks to Piers Benn, author of Intellectual Freedom and the Culture Wars, about cancel-culture, student activism and the recent Kathleen Stock scandal. Piers teaches Philosophy at Roehampton University and has been a lecturer in St Andrews, Leeds, Imperial College London and King’s College London. His introductory book Ethics is found on many Philosophy reading lists.

Stan speaks to Fran McCarthy, who has dedicated her career to schools in which children are free. Fran is a behaviour expert, runs workshops on conflict management, and is founding a democratic school for some of Sydney’s most disadvantaged young people. What is a democratic school? How can a school function when children have autonomy? How can learning be measured without exams? Can disadvantaged children handle freedom? Learn more about Fran’s latest project: www.communityxchange.com.au

Stan talks to Max Noble about Anarchism and education. Based in Canada, Max runs a radical project that gives children free rein to play and create collaboratively. What is Anarchy? What does an Anarchist education look like? How can we create non-coercive learning environments? Read more about Max’s Creation Stations here: https://www.tmaxrd.education/ Read Stan’s recent article about Anarchy and Education: https://stanpinsent.wordpress.com/2021/09/04/the-case-for-anarchy-in-schools/