Free to learn : why unleashing the instinct to play will make our children happier, more self-reliant, and better students for life / Peter Gray.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. What have we done to childhood? -- 2. The play-filled lives of hunter-gatherer children -- 3. Why schools are what they are: a brief history of education -- 4. Seven sins of our system of forced education -- 5. Lessons from Sudbury Valley: Mother Nature can prevail in modern times -- 6. The human educative instincts -- 7. The playful state of mind -- 8. The role of play in social and emotional development -- 9. Free age mixing: a key ingredient for children's capacity for self-education -- 10. Trustful parenting in our modern world.

LEARNING. 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.