In this podcast episode returning guest Peter Gray, retired professor of psychology at Boston College, makes an argument for why we should consider other ways of understanding and structuring learning in and outside of school. We talk about college and access to working life, possible alternative ways of learning an occupation, David Geary’s evolutionary theory of biologically primary and secondary abilities, what we need to learn and when we need to learn it, what we can observe in kids who aren’t taught in the conventional ways, kids who learn to read on their own or who learn the whole math curriculum in a couple of months in their late teens, how our expectations influence learning, consequences for not reading when society expects you to, how and when children learn to walk and what we do when they don’t, whining in different cultures, the summer slide, and what to say when people complain that they wish that someone had forced them to learn something earlier in life, how children’s independence and autonomy relates to their mental health, how we try to fix problems by taking away children’s liberty and responsibility, why we should teach them about dangers instead of trying to get rid of them, and many other topics.
Even if you don’t find yourself agreeing with all of Peter’s arguments, we would love to hear more about what points he’s making that you think are valid and worth considering. How can we let alternative views on education actually widen our current understanding of learning and schooling, instead of just assuming the worst about each other? Send un an email to larsogpaal@gmail.com, we’ll be thankful to every kind of criticism, feedback and suggestions of further explorations and interviews that we should do on these topics.
See more of Peter’s writings on his Substack https://petergray.substack.com/
Here’s his 2017 article about the summer slide, mentioned in the episode: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/201707/facts-and-fiction-about-the-so-called-summer-slide
Mentions and recommendations from the episode:
Peter was previously a guest on the podcast in episode 53:
https://larsogpaal.libsyn.com/episode-53-peter-gray-on-self-directed-education-and-schooling
----------------------------
Our logo is by Sveinung Sudbø, see his works on originalkopi.com
The music is by Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen, see the facebook page Nygrenda Vev og Dur for more info.
----------------------------
Thank you for listening. Please send feedback and questions to larsogpaal@gmail.com
There is no better way for the podcast to gain new interested listener than by you sharing it with friends, so if you find what we do interesting and useful, please consider doing just that. The podcast is still most in Norwegian, but we have a lot of episodes coming out in English.
Our blogs:
https://paljabekk.com/
https://larssandaker.blogspot.com/
Alt godt, hilsen Lars og Pål