The very last chapter of Peter Gray’s “Free to Learn”, was introduced by describing a situation in which a Mom left her son in mid-town Manhattan, and left him $20 to find his way home. I was laughing as I read this, because just last week, my Dad had asked me to do the exact same task. He dropped my brother, my two cousins, and myself off in downtown Lima, gave us 20 soles ($7), and told us to find a way home. I knew that he had given us 20 soles on purpose, because it wouldn’t be enough for a taxi and therefore leave us no choice but to learn how to ride public transportation. After walking around downtown and asking strangers for directions, we found the right buses that took us home 3 hours later. And in just 3 hours, with 20 soles and trust from my Dad, I learned a skill that I hadn’t been taught in my 14 years of school: problem solving. Because we were on our own and didn’t know a thing about transportation in Lima, we had to ask strangers for directions, read signs on the street and wait for people in the bus station to provide us with change, since we only had a 20 soles bill (I know realized why he gave us a bill on purpose instead of coins). Even though all of these skills may seem extremely easy to obtain, it does get real trickier when you don’t have an adult to hold your hand if you fail. After that experienced I finally realized what Gray had been talking about all along: the power of real life experiences modeled through free play. Through various experiments done by recognized phycologists, Gray is able to substantiate his idea that free play is essential for children, but that involves trust from many stakeholders. Because I am the type of student that is excellent in following rubrics, it was tough to adapt to this new educational ideal, because I knowledge couldn't be controlled. For this reason, I understand that reversing this Western ideology of school and college is extremely challenging. Personally, I believe that the potential solution for the schooling system came rather late in the book, also lacking the amount of details and facts in comparison to the other initial arguments on free play. Moreover, it failed to analyze all of its branches and possible outcomes to other alternatives based on many social factors. Although the solution was presented unclearly, reading this book certainly provided another perspective of learning. All of my life, I have been forced to look closely at only one way of learning, that it never gave me a chance to believe that it could be different. So thank you Peter Gray---for the freedom.
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As I stared at all the scribbled notes I made on the book, "Free to Learn", by Peter Gray, I realized that I understood the ideas that the author was trying to convey on the power of "free play". However, I couldn't bring myself to formulate a concrete opinion on the first 5 chapters I read. I am a big believer in practical learning and real-life experiences, so I agree that the way to teaching is not for the world we are living today, but I have taken school with so much seriousness and responsibility over the past years that I do generate some contradictions on the criticism he has for compulsory education. For this reason, here are the 2 main takeaways from the first 5 chapters:
1) School is an underrated prison, that limits children’s capacity to passionately explore. Grey supports the theory of school being like prison, because its the law that children have to attend against their will to follow the rules and suffer certain consequences for their misbehaviours. He strongly believes that compulsory education kills self-direction, fosters anxiety and reduces diversity of knowledge. However, I feel that Gray is pressing the issue in the perspective of students that only perform poor in school, that don’t go beyond to pursue their passion because they can’t seem to get over the stress and anxiety of the school system. Here I am speaking on behalf of the population that does manage to balance extra-curricular activities with school at the same time. Let's keep in mind that these extracurricular activities are self-driven, and not impulsed by any adult to fill out a college resume. “Tests and fear of failure create anxiety in almost everyone who takes school seriously.” Here, Gray tries to explain how anxiety levels have increased because of the pressure that students have to succeed in order to get into a good college. However, again, coming from student that takes school seriously, I see stress, tests, big projects, and challenges as preparation for the future. If students are exposed to stress and anxiety caused by so much work, they will be able to control those feelings in the future. For instance, the first time I failed a Math test, the feeling of failure consumed me for almost a week. Nevertheless, the second time I failed the test, I didn’t let it touch me as much, and learned to release the tension as soon as the tests was over. The more stress I am exposed to, the easier it is to control it and not let it affect you. 2) The way the school works, as a hierarchy where students have to follow all the rules imposed by adults, motivates students to focusing on the final destination, blinding them from the real journey of learning and inquiring. It is indeed true that the existing education system was used for a different objective, and that it must be rebuilt for the society we live in today. Nonetheless, how can educators lobby for a change in curriculums, if the colleges and jobs are not making a change either? What is the point on having students focusing on the learning and not the grades, if in the end once they are out to the "real-life", the grades in college are going to determine whether you get the degree or not? The question I keep asking myself when reading this book, is if changing school curriculums comes before or after changing the way colleges and jobs work. Because ultimately, students are pressured and rushed to get into college, so that they can get a get a good job. However, what would be the point of making a paradigm shift to the way we educate children, if they will go back to the compulsory education after they get into college? I personally hope that the next 5 chapters are about possible solutions to this matter. Up until now, Gray has successfully been able to convey his thesis with data and historical events, yet hasn’t been able to fully explain how “free play”, a keyword he constantly uses but does not elaborate on, will be applied in education the next years to come. |
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