• Free to Learn

  • By: Peter Gray
  • Narrated by: Dan Woren
  • Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (562 ratings)

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Free to Learn  By  cover art

Free to Learn

By: Peter Gray
Narrated by: Dan Woren
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Publisher's summary

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 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.

To foster children who will thrive in today's constantly changing world, we must entrust them to steer their own learning and development. Drawing on evidence from anthropology, psychology, and history, Gray demonstrates that free play is the primary means by which children learn to control their lives, solve problems, get along with peers, and become emotionally resilient. This capacity to learn through play evolved long ago, in hunter-gatherer bands where children acquired the skills of the culture through their own initiatives. And these instincts still operate remarkably well today, as studies at alternative, democratically administered schools show. When children are in charge of their own education, they learn better and at lower cost than the traditional model of coercive schooling.

A brave, counterintuitive proposal for freeing our children from the shackles of the curiosity-killing institution we call school, Free to Learn suggests that it's time to stop asking what's wrong with our children and start asking what's wrong with the system. It shows how we can act both as parents and as members of society to improve children's lives and promote their happiness and learning.

©2013 Peter Gray (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

" All kids love learning. Most don't love school. That's a disconnect we've avoided discussing until this lightning bolt of a book. If you've ever wondered why your curious kid is turning into a sullen slug at school, Peter Gray's Free to Learn has the answer. He also has the antidote." (Lenore Skenazy, author of Free-Range Kids)

" [A] well written, well organized and beautifully stated piece of work . I emphatically recommend this book for any parent as well as any educator or anyone interested in improving education for our society." (Laurette Lynn, UnpluggedMom.com)

" [E]nergetic Gray powerfully argues that schools inhibit learning . [Gray's] vivid illustrations of the power of play to shape an individual are bound to provoke a renewed conversation about turning the tide in an educational system that fosters conformity and inhibits creative thinking." (Publishers Weekly)

Featured Article: Best Audiobooks for At-Home Learning


With the arrival of a brand-new school year, parents across the globe are finding themselves tasked with a new challenge in addition to the typical back-to-school duties: learning to teach. Whether you are educating your kids from home, helping manage their virtual or hybrid education, or just want to supplement their coursework, these useful audiobooks provide some much-needed guidance for teaching outside the confines of a traditional classroom.

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Tremendous

life changing information for parents. It's on my list of the 10 most amazing books I've read.

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12 people found this helpful

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School teacher thoughts

As a public school teacher, now considering unschooling my child, I found this very helpful. It had tons of evidence based stories and research. I’m going to recommend teachers read it.

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first ever audible, excellent!

We are in the process of switching to homeschooling. I am so incredibly grateful to Peter for writing this book. It was full of great insight into the world of education. I truly enjoyed the history he went into and how the book was laid out. the narrator was absolutely fantastic and I found myself not wanting to turn the audible book off.

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Rehashed and unoriginal progressive themes

Strikes a worn-out progressive stance replete with what is becoming repetitive to these types of education-centered tomes... hearkening back to the perceived benefits of hunter-gatherer tribes.

One can't read or listen to alternative education material without being subjected to the same old tribalism trope where these magical, playful, historical kids had seemingly better lives when their parents lived hand to mouth barely subsisting in the hard bushes somewhere.

The author's approach also takes on a Marxist sheen when one hears his obvious disdain for private property rights and the horrors of modern agriculture and the terrors this monster unleashed on little kids which hardly offers evidence for what ails modern education.

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Communist hypocrite

This guy is very biased and anti-God. He says he’s a Darwinian in the beginning, but then becomes very unbalanced. He doesn’t know his history. The Catholic Church is responsible for many issues-Martin Luther and the reformation set men free to think, believe, learn, worship and live as they saw fit. It created personal responsibility and created a platform for capitalism-which lifted the world out of poverty. Look at the statistics people-compare the poverty level of 150 years ago to modern times. You ought to be thankful you live now. I digress, he acts like “the church” and capitalism ruined the world. I’m all for more freedom with my kids-that’s why my wife and I homeschool and allow them to pursue their interests. His approach is very unbalanced and he obviously has a big problem with a God he doesn’t believe lol. Very contradictory. He acts like the puritans were awful for introducing personal responsibility. And yet wants us to let our children do whatever they want and teach themselves... very frustrating book. He mixes politics (he’s communist/socialist) and anti-religion with how to raise our children.

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Put me to sleep

The narration is so droll! I was close to give up a couple times. I would find my mind wandering while listening. Part of the book was literally a play by play of a play encounter of three girls. Analyzing play at that level made it ridiculous to listen to. Long story short: let your kids play, stay out of the way, and practice trust in your parenting. Skip to the last few chapters about parenting. I found that part useful.

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incredibly rich -informative and inspiring

I really love this book. I admire the comprehensive nature of Peter Gray's experience and informative and informative style style.. Of all the books I've read Of all the books I've read on on on schooling on schooling and on liberal methods of free classrooms everything from Waldorf school to Montessori to free schools and to nature schools, this book stands apart in its spectrum of illustration of principles and success stories. The concept of freedom in Learning and curiosity and commitment both demands and deserves to be put in Front and center Front and center when we as students as students as adults as adults as teachers and instructors begin to comprehend the importance only allowing students to determine only allowing students to determine a Certain amount a Certain amount of freedom of freedom in their decisions about what to learn we're learned how to learn we're learned how to learn and how to be responsible when given and that sort of freedom and liberty when given and that sort of freedom and liberty....

Thank you Peter gray...we so appreciate you're insights and lifetime of Study and teaching in passing on in passing on these stories which illustrate the success of this style of learning.

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This is a great book!

Great book!
A lot of information including the history of schools!
Explains the natural ways kids learn. I am so grateful for unschool. All children deserve to be happy with no anxiety.

Kids are being medicated with a sedative just to be able to go to school (this isn't in the book)! This is unacceptable. Some children have Pathological Demand Avoidance and unschool is the way they thrive. There are many other children that could thrive from this as well! It promotes free thinking. We need more free thinkers for outside the box thinking. The medical field in particular REALLY needs this!

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Revolutionary

This book may very well change the course of my life and my daughter's life. As a teacher and a parent, I will never think about education in the same way again. Well-researched and simply stated, I found fascinating the history of our transition from play-based hunter gatherer culture to coercive adult-directed schooling. Thank you Peter for this (my) introduction to self-directed education, democratic schooling and play-borhoods!!

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A must-read (or listen)

This is a great book for anyone that has even the slightest feeling that the general schooling system is some how flawed. Some really great points made about playing and child independence.
I believe this book outlines how parenting and schools will be, and should be, in the future.

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