Book Review: Free to Learn

Free to Learn
Peter Gray
Copyright 2013
235 pages

Taking a break from SVS Press books but still wanting to continue my Sudbury research, I picked up Free to Learn, an examination of what it means to play from an anthropologist (and also father of an SVS student)'s perspective. I'm not sure I really have much to say in review because I completely internalized the entire thing while reading it, enjoying it much more than I expected to. It's an easy read, apparently, as Gray's words leapt off the page and melded themselves immediately into my view of reality.

One of the things I enjoyed most about Free to Learn is the scale from which Gray speaks as an anthropologist. While exploring the world of alternative education, most every bit of literature I come across asks the Why question--"Why is our education system the way it is?" To which the unanimous response reads, "Well, the Industrial Revolution." But Gray, not accepting that as the complete answer, explores further, back to hunter-gatherers, the earliest humans, and plays with concepts he finds there.

In fact, play is exactly what he does, as he, himself, admits. "...I would estimate that my behavior in writing this book is about 80 percent play. That percentage varies from time to time as I go along; it decreases when I worry about deadlines or how critics will evaluate it, and it increases when I'm focused only on the current task of researching or writing. ... I am taking into account not just my sense of freedom about doing it, my enjoyment of the process, and the fact that I'm following rules (about writing) that I accept as my own, but also the fact that a considerable degree of imagination is involved. I'm not making up the facts, but I am making up the way of stringing them together. Furthermore, I am constantly imagining how they will fit into the whole structure I am trying to build, one that does not yet exist as concrete reality." (p. 140, 151) That play through which Gray writes is palpable throughout and makes for an entirely enjoyable experience.

Before reading Free to Learn, I knew, perhaps only through intuition, that play was an important part of learning, just not to this extent. Gray teaches us, through an examination of evolution, that play IS learning and that it is a powerful force, indeed. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

A letter to the director of my daycare: The importance of outdoor play

Earlier this week, the director of the daycare where I work led a meeting with the teachers to discuss current events of the school, one of which was that parents were complaining teachers kept children outside too long. The director told us that he didn't care overly much, but that he didn't have anything to tell the parents when they asked what the children learned when they stayed outside. I spoke up immediately, saying something like, "You can tell them that they learn communication skills and develop spacial awareness." He agreed and said that he was just voicing concerns.

Since then, I haven't been able to get that scene out of my mind, like a missed opportunity to sell him on the wonders of an outdoor curriculum. Finally, Sunday morning, I couldn't help but write an email. I wrote it quickly, only taking about half an hour of time, so the end result is a little sloppy. I'll probably look back and cringe at myself for the lack of organization and poor writing (in fact, I'm already noticing changes I could have made), but I decided that I would post the letter here, as well.

I've been thinking a lot recently about how you were concerned you couldn't tell parents their children learned much when we stayed outside for a long while. On the contrary, I think being outside is one of the times when children learn the most.

Young children need as much time as possible to practice running and moving about in a wide, open area so as to grow their bodies, strengthen their muscles, and develop spacial awareness. It also gives them a good dosage of sunlight and fresh air to develop healthy immune systems. That, I think, is the most important reason to play outdoors--to develop strong, healthy bodies.

Second is the interactions between the children as they play, the communication and ability to empathize with others that lies the foundation for the rest of their lives. While we're outside, the kids are learning the skills that they need to get along with each other. The other teachers and I frequently model correct and friendly usage of language for the children to try when they want to play with a friend. If a child says, "I want to play with that ball," the one that another child has, I tell him, "Go ask if you can play with her." And he does! The child gets up and runs to the other child to ask, "Can I play with you?" Most of the time, this leads to a happy game of laughing children. But other times, of course, the other child wants to be left alone, to which I tell the first child, "Oops. [Child B] said, 'No.' She just wants to play by herself right now. What else can we play?" In that case, the child is learning many things: first that other children have feelings that must be respected, second that they can't always have what they want and that the world goes on regardless and they can still find something else to play and still be happy.

Another thing children learn outside is how to occupy themselves and create their own games (particularly in my favorite playground at name of daycare, the older toddler area where there is minimal equipment, just grass and a large area to run). This is especially important today while children are growing up in an age that gives them everything instantly. Computers, cell phones, and TVs offer endless "entertainment," but it's all passive--sit back and let the electronics flash bright colors and show pretty pictures. What would we do without them? Which is why the slow pace of the outdoors and the creativity of being able to design your own game with no man-made parts are so invaluable. (Not that technology and video games don't teach a lot and have their own important place in education, which I absolutely know that they do.)

We also learn respect for environment. There's a tree outside of the older toddler playground with branches that hang into our reach, and we've had many discussions about how it's not polite to pull on the leaves that are still attached to the tree because the tree is still using them.

We often practice writing letters and drawing pictures on the cement with chalk, too. One girl frequently comes to me with a piece of chalk in her hand and asks me to write, one at a time, all of her friends' and teachers' names. Since we've been doing this, whenever a friends' name is written elsewhere, for instance, on a potty sheet, she can correctly identify the child. Name and letter recognition at such an early age, and all on her own initiative!

And that doesn't even begin to cover the importance of a play-based curriculum in a world full of standardized-testing and teacher-as-the-authoritarian-figure-at-the-front-of-the-room.

Remember, there are schools that spend their ENTIRE time outside, regardless of weather. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_kindergarten, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp4Nny_rIiw I know these are fundamentally different than our school, but I just wanted to emphasize that being outside is so important to these educators that they base their entire curriculum on it.

Finally, a few links. The first is from a blog that I like, although I know most of the skills listed are more pertinent to forest kindergartens than to our school. The others were found with three minutes of googling.
http://progressiveearlychildhoodeducation.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/does-this-sound-familiar-i-receive-many.html
http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=275
http://www.communityplaythings.co.uk/resources/articles/outdoor-play.html
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/eric-strickland-phd-what-children-learn-through-outdoor-play

Holly

"The tree is still using those leaves."

There is a tree whose branches overhang into one of the two toddler playgrounds at the daycare center I work at. It seems that there is a cycle involving those branches that goes something like this:

1. The branches are growing down over the fence.
2. The branches are now long enough that the toddlers can jump up to pull the leaves off and break off portions of the supple limbs.
3. The branches are now shorter and forgotten, out of reach of the children.

And repeat. It's like a free trimming service.

Except that it builds unfriendly habits towards nature.

Which leads me to say, "Do not take from living plants. The plants are still using those parts. If you find parts of a plant that are on the ground, we can take those--the plant is finished using them and has given them to us like a gift."

(I think I may have gotten a line similar to this from the book, Teaching Kids to Love the Earth.)

But, of course, the two-year-olds I work with are not used to thinking along such terms, there are too many children on the playground at once for them to ignore the commotion of the others playing and pay attention to comments like this, and the other teachers are not on board with this care of plants, either.

So once every two weeks or so, I do everything in my power to prevent the flurried dance of two-year-olds jumping, pulling, tugging, and falling into each other in order to harm a tree.

Montessori teaching is difficult at a center that doesn't embrace the Montessori philosophy.

More on such thoughts later.

List of Montessori Secondary Schools

What follows is a (so far, incomplete) list of American Montessori secondary schools and the unique qualities they have.

A Look into Secondary Montessori Education

Because Montessori didn't write about extensively about secondary education like she did early childhood and elementary, not many secondary Montessori schools exist. I wrote previously that a natural progression from the independence training that early childhood and elementary Montessori schools provide might be an opportunity for children to be completely in control of their own education.

I haven't had the chance to read the translations of Montessori's work, but I've read recently online that she briefly mentioned her idea of secondary schools involving adolescents gaining an education through their experiences working on a farm. Wikipedia has it cited as:

"The essential reform of our plan from this point of view may be defined as follows: during the difficult time of adolescence it is helpful to leave the accustomed environment of the family in town and to go to quiet surroundings in the country, close to nature." (1989, p. 67)

Hershey Montessori School in Ohio seems to have taken that quote to heart when designing their school. They have received much recognition. Here is the Montessori for Everyone blog on Erdkinder (German for Earth Child) and the Hershey school. And here is NAMTA's David Kahn on the Hershey school and Colegio Montessori de Tepoztlan in Mexico.

Noted Montessorian Michael Olaf writes that adolescents need to spend time working with money, finding themselves, and trying different unpaid apprenticeships.

I'd like to get more of an idea of some existing Montessori secondary schools. Perhap they will give me some insight or inspiration. I'll create my list here.

Finally, NAMTA published a journal titled The Montessori Adolescent Analysis in Retrospect that I'd like to get a chance to read sometime (although I'm curious what they mean by "in retrospect"). They also host a course called The AMI Montessori Orientation to Adolescent Studies (hosted at the Hershey campus). I'd really like to attend after I get my Elementary I and II license.

EDIT (2/29/12): Montessori Muddle is a great blog I found that advertises itself as "Middle and High School ... from a Montessori Point of View." From the looks of it, the author talks about a little bit of everything. I can't wait to get reading.

Outdoor Preschool in Norway video

I haven't written anything about Outdoor Preschools yet, but here's a 30 minute video of one in Norway.