Free to Learn
Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life

Quotes

"Weaving together evidence from psychology, history, and anthropology, [Peter Gray] makes the case that compulsory schooling is not only misguided but deeply damaging, an affront to the playful instincts of childhood."—Psychology Today

In Free to Learn,a passionate paean to the kind of free play and free learning ... Peter Gray, an evolutionary psychologist at Boston College, makes a largely compelling case that children learn best when unencumbered by adult-imposed activities and institutions."—American Journal of Play

"Anyone who cares about learning should read Free to Learn. Gray’s book is a compelling and easy read; if everyone would read it with an open mind, a wholesale revolution in education (right through to university) would be the inevitable outcome."
 —Dissident Voice

"Free to Learn makes a good case for the importance of play as a renewable resource for school reform and transformation."—Spirituality & Practice

"We [Life learners] appreciate having someone who is a developmental psychologist and college professor understand so well-- not to mention respect-- the lives we're living."—Life Learning Magazine

"Peter also shows his overt support for unschooling as a true bright spot in western culture and details the results of his own survey of unschooling families. Whether you buy this book, borrow it or check it out of the library, this book is as important as any of John Holt's early books."
 —Home Education Magazine

“[Free to Learn is] a powerful agent of transformation. I'd like to put a copy in the hands of every parent, teacher, and policy maker.”
 —Mothering.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

"Free to Learn stimulates a parent’s thinking about what kind of learning environment helps their child learn and adjust best, and then how to simulate that environment at home or out of school if it doesn’t exist among their school options...Gray has caused me to re-focus my grand-parenting activities in ways that will encourage freedom of learning and play. We may not be able to change the world, but we can help our children adapt better to it."—PyschCentral

"Peter Gray is one of the world's experts on the evolution of childhood play, and applies his encyclopedic knowledge of psychology, and his humane voice, to the pressing issue of educational reform. Though I am not sure I agree with all of his recommendations, he forces us all to rethink our convictions on how schools should be designed to accommodate the ways that children learn.”—Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works