Free to Learn by Peter Gray
That blurb makes the book sound far, far more "anti-school" than it actually feels. Even though Free to Learn presents very unconventional ideas about education, it reads in a balanced way, without alienating people, and even admitting this approach might not be a right fit for everyone. If you're familiar with Playful Parenting by Lawrence J. Cohen or Free-Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy, you'll recognize a lot of the same fundamental ideas in Free to Learn: How children learn through play, how well they learn when given the freedom to explore and discover without intervention, the benefits of mixed-age groups. I enjoyed this book on a personal level. It's very similar to the way my own family approaches homeschooling. Gray mixes anthropological evidence and psychological studies with…