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

Join our learning community for an a.m./p.m. conversation about topics relevant to education today. April's selection, Free to Learn, by developmental child psychologist Peter Gray, highlights how free play is essential to supporting children’s self-management, problem-solving and resilience. We all come into the world with innate curiosity; read how we can keep that capacity alive to promote engaged learning and happiness.

Book  Details

The High Meadows Center for Progressive Learning is the connecting point between the global shifts in education, how communities are advocating for better learning models for their children, and the sought-after learning experience High Meadows offers its diverse student body. Our book clubs are designed as relationship-building experiences that bring people together in conversation about what's relevant in education today. Texts are carefully chosen to represent the best ideas in progressive learning. 

"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.

To foster children who will thrive in today’s constantly changing world, we must entrust them to steer their own learning and development. Drawing on evidence from anthropology, psychology, and history, Gray demonstrates that free play is the primary means by which children learn to control their lives, solve problems, get along with peers, and become emotionally resilient."

More Information

Light refreshments will be provided. Please dress comfortably. We will meet in the Elementary building at High Meadows, the green-trimmed building above the lower parking lot. 

Please be aware that we have a morning conversation from 9:00 to 10:30 and an evening conversation from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Please attend the session for which you register. 

Childcare is provided at the evening conversations for currently-enrolled High Meadows students for a fee of $10 per child. Please click here to register for childcare. 

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