This episode features a short lecture of education and parenting researcher, writer, and lecturer Alfie Kohn from 2011. He explains the three most basic needs of children and why schools fails at meeting them.
Category: Unschooling Voices
John Holt: The Right to Control One’s Learning (14m)
This episode features an audio essay written by education reformer John Holt in 1974, which comprises Chapter 19 of Everything Voluntary: From Politics to Parenting, edited by Skyler J. Collins and published in 2012. He talks about the rights and prerogative of children to control their own education.
Daniel Quinn: Schooling, the Hidden Agenda (29m)
This episode features an audio essay written by American author Daniel Quinn in 2000, which comprises Chapter 18 of Everything Voluntary: From Politics to Parenting, edited by Skyler J. Collins and published in 2012. He explores the true purpose of mass public schooling and its effects.
Peter Gray: Education and Human Evolution (1h49m)
This episode features a lecture by evolutionary psychologist, research professor, and author Peter Gray from 2016 on how children’s natural curiosity, playfulness, sociability, and willfulness have all been shaped by natural selection to serve the function of education.
Peter Gray: The Promise of Play (1h11m)
This episode features a lecture by evolutionary psychologist, research professor, and author Peter Gray from 2018 on the importance and benefits of play in the lives of children and human beings.
Astra Taylor: The Unschooled Life (1h12m)
This episode features a lecture by Astra Taylor from 2012 on what it was like for her growing up without school. Raised by independent-thinking bohemian parents, Astra was unschooled until age 13. Join the filmmaker as she shares her personal experiences of growing up homeschooled without a curriculum or schedule, and how it has shaped her educational philosophy and development as an artist.