Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T09:02:03.290Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Evolving the future of education: Problems in enabling broad social reforms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2014

Peter Gray*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467. [email protected]://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/psych/people/affiliated/gray.html

Abstract

The apparent success of the Sudbury Valley School, coupled with its lack of impact on the larger culture, is used here to illustrate general constraints on managed change at the large-population level. Government regulations preventing innovation, the difficulty of bucking social norms, and the inadequacy of current indices of success operate against beneficial educational change in the larger culture.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Gray, P. (2011a) The decline of play and the rise of psychopathology in childhood and adolescence. American Journal of Play 3:443–63.Google Scholar
Gray, P. (2011b) The evolutionary biology of education: How our hunter-gatherer educative instincts could form the basis for education today. Evolution, Education, and Outreach 4:428–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, P. (2013) Free to learn: Why unleashing the instinct to play will make our children happier, more self-reliant, and better students for life. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Gray, P. & Chanoff, D. (1986) Democratic schooling: What happens to young people who have charge of their own education? American Journal of Education 94:182213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, P. & Riley, G. (2013) The challenges and benefits of unschooling according to 232 families who have chosen that route. Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning 7:127.Google Scholar
Greenberg, D. & Sadofsky, M. (1992) Legacy of trust: Life after the Sudbury Valley School experience. Sudbury Valley School Press.Google Scholar
Greenberg, D., Sadofsky, M. & Lempka, J. (2005) The pursuit of happiness: The lives of Sudbury Valley alumni. Sudbury Valley School Press.Google Scholar
Hoekstra, D. (2013) Niks vrijheid blijheid op school. Algemeen Dagblad, 5. March 29, 2013.Google Scholar
Kim, K. H. (2011) The creativity crisis: The decrease in creative thinking scores on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Creativity Research Journal 23:285–95.Google Scholar
Zhao, Y. (2012) World class learners: Educating creative and entrepreneurial students. Corwin.Google Scholar