Great examples, and important to discuss. But I strongly suspect all of your examples are of kids with above avg IQs, who would likely have fine by their early 20s, if they avoid drug & sex addictions (too common for all teens, tho the trend is down. )
I’m most concerned about the low IQ kids, and support far more hands on type shop classes & vocational training in schools. My fear is that all day playing video games is the main alternative to going to school for most kids, especially boys.
Love this: Passionate interests develop when children are allowed to play and explore to their heart’s content. They play in many ways, at many different things, and in the process, they discover what they most love to do.
I had a question. In the current age, how can we ensure the kids who are unschooled or homeschooled do not get addicted to technology and engage themselves in play? I am talking about if they don't go to an unschool. This is a question that has been on my mind since long because I want to understand if technology makes any difference.
School teaches people to stand in line, not speak without permission, dislike other people, and be bullied. It's a useful instrument of fascism. Obviously has no place in fostering creativity or individual aspiration.
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
– This quote has been attributed to Mark Twain (but like a lot of things he said he may not have actually said it).
Schooling may help socialize children: taking turns, standing in line, raising a hand to speak, cooperation with others, sharing without feeling deprived, learning to live with others who are not (much) like you.
But education is that which develops you as a human being become wiser, knowledgeable, capable (but also knowing your limitations), kind, competent, creative, an asset to all of your friends.
Hello, Peter. I'm not sure where to post this question or if you've possibly covered it elsewhere. I grew up as a very "active" and creative kid -- always playing music, drawing, learning a new trick on my skateboard, etc. On the other hand, my 13 year old daughter absolutely loves reading fiction and graphic novels. She could easily spend 20 hours a day reading in her room. My wife and I love that she's an avid reader and support her; however, I'm wondering if reading may not check some of the skill developing boxes that play does (as you describe it in your work). Do you have any thoughts on how reading fiction relates to play? Thank you.
I’m in the midst of recognizing that our (very good) public school isn’t a good fit for my daughter, but also recognizing that we, her parents, do not have enough time and patience to homeschool, probably don’t have enough money to pay for a private school, if there even are any nearby that embrace students learning at their own pace and focusing on passions.
I’d love suggestions for finding an alternative school, if anyone has any.
I don't know how old your daughter is but if you trust her and it is legal where you live you might consider allowing her to be unschooled (where she is in charge of her education).
There may be homeschool / unschool cooperatives or collectives nearby, where people can come and go and participate in ways that the group agrees to. In such a situation she may be able to thrive without fear or concern about her sitting at home by herself all day.
Some small alternative schools may even agree to a work-trade agreement where you (or your daughter even) does a certain amount of work in exchange for tuition. Alternatively, I would definitely see if you could access any state or foundation funding that could help offset tuition.
If you post your city folks could jump in with recommendations.
Even when I attended public school, I remember having so much free time after school. As you mentioned in previous articles, today's kids generally have scheduled activities instead. I remember reading a lot, doing some writing, playing around with music (I took piano lessons on and off), and - when I was under about seven - my sister and I ran a "school" for our dolls and stuffed animals. Some of our children's books still have their names in them, as they were the "textbooks."
I switched to a progressive school in high school. It wasn't entirely self-directed, but we were definitely encouraged to speak up about what was working or not working for us. I only took the minimal amount of math and science for university entrance. My passions were for English and History. I also wanted to study music theory and composition, but our little school had trouble affording a teacher who could do that.
I made that dream come true by majoring in music, with a concentration on composition. I never intended or even thought about how this would become a career! When I got my music degree I felt I had completed that quest. I went back to school for my teaching credential, already possessing a very progressive ideology.
In the public school classroom I pushed the limits as much as I could. Now I'm working with homeschooled kids, tutoring them primarily in reading and writing - my two favorites from school. The parents have varying philosophies, but I continually share how important it is for the child to decide what to write, and if they even want to write at all. When they see their child's positive response to my approach, I can usually move the parents toward a more self-directed approach.
I'm glad I had those childhood experiences of choice and autonomy. They've certainly influenced my current practices.
I recently had the strange pleasure of re-reading Dragonsong - an escapist fantasy novel I read in 4th grade. I'm shocked by the reading skills of my 10 year-old self. Half a century later, warm memories of scenes, characters, and story arcs come flooding back to mind.
An unpleasant aspect of the re-read is that it also dredged up memories of why I was so deeply engrossed in escapist fantasy novels. I was so bored in elementary school I remember it as a form of torture. For middle school, my parents were able to afford a Quaker-run private school with a more unschooling-like approach and I thrived. But I still look back on 4th grade as the worst year of my life. In part because of family drama, but mostly because I would rather be waterboarded than experience the level of boredom I felt in elementary school.
Anyway, that's my bittersweet back-story. It leads me to a specific technical question. Do you mean to argue that unschooling would be better for all children? Another way of asking the question: how common is the Edison/Einstein/Goodall phenotype. Conventional wisdom would have it that the type of creative genius who would benefit from unschooling is freakishly rare.
I have three nephews and only one of them seems to be experiencing school as an institutionalized boredom torture factory the same way I did. My sense is that the other two nephews are thriving under standard formal education. So maybe a third of the general population would benefit from unschooling? Or are you invoking the dreadful scenario where all three nephews would have benefited from unschooling, if only the industrial boredom torture factory hadn't crushed the creativity out them. Ugh.
Peter, I love it when you pepper some of your life anecdotes into these essays. It sounds like your brother really lucked out with respect to your family's values, the free school, and the program he was able to join after he dropped out. It is a shame that most young people are not afforded such opportunities.
Peter - As a parent I lived out your ideas as much as I could. I came across your work in 2012, just after my first child was born. I read Free at Last, and Free to Learn, along with your articles. I looked for an “unschool,” but there were none available nearby. The closest we had was Waldorf and that didn’t fit our family. So I found the next best thing. I literally walked into a small private school and told them I wanted to unschool my daughter. It wasn’t an unschool though, but it was as close as I could find. Problem is, my daughter didn’t learn to read and I didn’t care for the political agenda of the school, so we moved to a different school with a completely different philosophy. https://www.challengerschool.com She’s doing well at this new school, but it could certainly benefit from more freedom and play. I think the answer might be halfway between unschooling and direct instruction, but there’s no way to know because public schools have crowded out schools that would emerge in a freer-market. I say we need to cut funding to public schools so that private schools like you’re suggesting can flourish. Like Arnold Kling says in this comment section, we need more school experiments so that we can figure out what works. Public neighborhood schools are a one-size fits all mediocrity that monopolize education.
I would love to see public schools replaced with unschools - learning centers, basically. As to the reading issue, I think that every child is different. I work with many students who are having difficulty learning to read or write. I don't think it contradicts unschooling philosophy. Some kids will need more direct teaching, usually in a certain subject, than others. I think it's only fair to the child to make sure they are not missing out on basic skills. If it turns out they have a learning disability, it will be more challenging to deal with when they are older. It's tricky, because I have seen ten-year-olds suddenly learn to write and spell, seemingly because they had a reason/motivation. My rule of thumb for reading is, if they're not showing any signs of learning to read by seven, it's time to gently intervene.
Good to meet you Beth and thanks for your comment. She is reading well on her own now, at age 12, but it was a struggle teaching her how to read in order to keep up with the curriculum. This issue really goes to the heart of Peter’s Substack. I see the beauty of his vision, but the one-size-fits-all status quo driven by public funding of schools, makes it so difficult do experiments. Maybe I can learn a few things from your Substack.
Basic economics. Put yourself in parents’ shoes. 1) Parents are forced to pay for public schools through taxes. 2) If they decide to put their kids in private school, they’re now funding two schools and using one. So most parents aren’t going to do that, or can’t afford it. This crowds out the emergence of private schools. It means there are more parents that would put their kids in private schools if they weren’t forced to pay for public schools.
Or alternatively, put yourself in an educational entrepreneur’s shoes. There are men and woman that would love to start their own private school, but parents are already paying for public schools. In order to persuade parents to come to their school, they need to offer a better value than the public school. They’re forced to compete against a school that charges $0. Tell me, how many parents are going to send their kids to a school charging thousands of dollars when there’s a mediocre one charging next to nothing?
Okay, it seems you are not saying "cut funding," you are saying abolish funding so that public schools no longer exist. Very different arguments and different takeaways.
Please be respectful. What would you propose as a way of improving school choice? What is your explanation for why there are so few private schools of the type that Peter Gray advocates? How can we help him?
I just wanted clarification on the notion that reducing funding for public schools would somehow allow private schools to flourish--it sounds pretty far fetched. Your follow up response indicates that what you meant to say was that funding for public schools should cease to exist, or be cut to zero, which seems to suggest that you believe that public schools should cease to exist.
I agree that eradicating public schools would lead to a proliferation of private schools, although I believe that almost every private school that stood up in its wake would be a conventional private school, and not the type of Self-Directed Education centers (e.g., free school) that Peter referenced. Hence, not the type of accessible and unbounded choice that I would hope for.
Having actually run a Self-Directed Education community for 7 years, I have a slew of reasons to explain why there are not more SDE centers. It is a long list. The existence of public schools is not very high on that list.
I was a teacher for forty years, and I spent a lot of time in learning support.
There were some of my pupils, including those diagnosed with dyslexia and those who weren't, who needed such a variety of strategies to learn to read.
How would those children fare in an unschooling situation?
Some people I know attended school when schooling was 'unschooled.' They missed out on Maths skills, and I'm sure others must have missed out on literacy if they were unable to pick it up by osmosis?
The examples given of people who thrived were chosen by selective attention, I'm guessing. What percentage of the unschooled did they constitute? What percentage of the unscheduled did not thrive?
I think that direct teaching in unschooling is absolutely fair if the child needs it. I work with kids with disabilities, too, and I'm sure some would not learn to read or spell without some intervention. If this can be set up one-on-one it usually works with short daily sessions. They can devote the rest of their day to self-directed learning.
I just love love love these examples of how the unschooled child has become a fulfilled adult.
I know for myself that I would have LOVED to have been unschooled. I was really happy until I was 4 1/4 and went to school - and it was all downhill from that moment :(.
It has taken me years to discover who I truly am and what I'm great at - before then I only knew what I was useless at.
I love your brother's story. I unschool my almost 11 yo son - always have since birth. And I still wish he had more free time! When I observe what he chooses to do in his free time, that is when I learn most about him and how his brain works.
This past year, he has a huge interest in learning different sports so he's on a lot of teams and trying things out. Even though he doesn't attend school, sports practices do capitalize a lot of time which I don't prefer. Up until recently, he delved deep into building anything lego and robotics. I love seeing him explore and going through different phases of interests. I try not to project what he will do in his teen years b/c, like your brother, new passions may arise and I don't want to limit his thinking that all his different passions contradict each other. I'm a big believer in trying a wide variety of things to learn about oneself.
Both my husband and I said if we were reincarnated, we'd want to come back as our son b/c he gets to do so many things whereas we couldn't growing up due to either financial constraints or lack of support from parents into anything "nonacademic."
Our youngest son (11) has developed a passionate interest for planes over the past two years. He spends hours at a time carefully constructing model planes, installing electronics, and designing. As we homeschool, he can spend all his free time after we get academics done pursuing this passion. He has now been able to connect with a group of three boys and an RC plane veteran (a retired senior with the same passion) who is apprenticing them into more complicated designs.
I agree that when children are given the opportunity to simply have free time - which is not filled with digital distractions or endless scheduled extracurricular classes - they find the most amazing pursuits to pour their energies into. Thanks for your writing Peter!
A year and a half ago, every time I took a walk near a tiny stream near me, I would see three kids smoking pot when they otherwise would have been at school. That is another form of unschooling, and I doubt that it will work out well. Ideally, unschooling would work better for the majority of young people, but I don't know how we can be certain until one does a controlled experiment with random selection of the treatment group, rather than looking at a sample of kids who selected out of school and had parents who permitted that.
Good point. There is a big difference between dropping out, with a sense of failure or cynicism, and rising out, with an attitude that this is better for me than school. Still, I do wonder about those three kids. We don't know what they were talking or thinking about as they sat there smoking pot, or what followed next in their lives. Many great people (Tolstoy is an example) went through early phases of looking like they were going to waste their lives. Even at schools designed for Self-Directed Education and among unschoolers, we see that some kids who come from coercive schooling need a period of recovery, in which they appear to do nothing (but who knows what is going on inside) before they take control of their lives.
The experiment has happened - in all the years throughout the history of the world where there was no coercive schooling! All of Peter's work shows this. For a relatively short time, we've tried coercing children into the "right" education, and it has not turned out any better results. It may even be extremely harmful, as we are beginning to learn.
Luckily, many people have risen out of the system that keeps kids down to create a wide expanse of opportunities for anyone to educate themselves by following their passion - with our without parent permission.
Great examples, and important to discuss. But I strongly suspect all of your examples are of kids with above avg IQs, who would likely have fine by their early 20s, if they avoid drug & sex addictions (too common for all teens, tho the trend is down. )
I’m most concerned about the low IQ kids, and support far more hands on type shop classes & vocational training in schools. My fear is that all day playing video games is the main alternative to going to school for most kids, especially boys.
Love this: Passionate interests develop when children are allowed to play and explore to their heart’s content. They play in many ways, at many different things, and in the process, they discover what they most love to do.
I had a question. In the current age, how can we ensure the kids who are unschooled or homeschooled do not get addicted to technology and engage themselves in play? I am talking about if they don't go to an unschool. This is a question that has been on my mind since long because I want to understand if technology makes any difference.
School teaches people to stand in line, not speak without permission, dislike other people, and be bullied. It's a useful instrument of fascism. Obviously has no place in fostering creativity or individual aspiration.
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
– This quote has been attributed to Mark Twain (but like a lot of things he said he may not have actually said it).
Schooling may help socialize children: taking turns, standing in line, raising a hand to speak, cooperation with others, sharing without feeling deprived, learning to live with others who are not (much) like you.
But education is that which develops you as a human being become wiser, knowledgeable, capable (but also knowing your limitations), kind, competent, creative, an asset to all of your friends.
Hello, Peter. I'm not sure where to post this question or if you've possibly covered it elsewhere. I grew up as a very "active" and creative kid -- always playing music, drawing, learning a new trick on my skateboard, etc. On the other hand, my 13 year old daughter absolutely loves reading fiction and graphic novels. She could easily spend 20 hours a day reading in her room. My wife and I love that she's an avid reader and support her; however, I'm wondering if reading may not check some of the skill developing boxes that play does (as you describe it in your work). Do you have any thoughts on how reading fiction relates to play? Thank you.
I’m in the midst of recognizing that our (very good) public school isn’t a good fit for my daughter, but also recognizing that we, her parents, do not have enough time and patience to homeschool, probably don’t have enough money to pay for a private school, if there even are any nearby that embrace students learning at their own pace and focusing on passions.
I’d love suggestions for finding an alternative school, if anyone has any.
I don't know how old your daughter is but if you trust her and it is legal where you live you might consider allowing her to be unschooled (where she is in charge of her education).
There may be homeschool / unschool cooperatives or collectives nearby, where people can come and go and participate in ways that the group agrees to. In such a situation she may be able to thrive without fear or concern about her sitting at home by herself all day.
Some small alternative schools may even agree to a work-trade agreement where you (or your daughter even) does a certain amount of work in exchange for tuition. Alternatively, I would definitely see if you could access any state or foundation funding that could help offset tuition.
If you post your city folks could jump in with recommendations.
Even when I attended public school, I remember having so much free time after school. As you mentioned in previous articles, today's kids generally have scheduled activities instead. I remember reading a lot, doing some writing, playing around with music (I took piano lessons on and off), and - when I was under about seven - my sister and I ran a "school" for our dolls and stuffed animals. Some of our children's books still have their names in them, as they were the "textbooks."
I switched to a progressive school in high school. It wasn't entirely self-directed, but we were definitely encouraged to speak up about what was working or not working for us. I only took the minimal amount of math and science for university entrance. My passions were for English and History. I also wanted to study music theory and composition, but our little school had trouble affording a teacher who could do that.
I made that dream come true by majoring in music, with a concentration on composition. I never intended or even thought about how this would become a career! When I got my music degree I felt I had completed that quest. I went back to school for my teaching credential, already possessing a very progressive ideology.
In the public school classroom I pushed the limits as much as I could. Now I'm working with homeschooled kids, tutoring them primarily in reading and writing - my two favorites from school. The parents have varying philosophies, but I continually share how important it is for the child to decide what to write, and if they even want to write at all. When they see their child's positive response to my approach, I can usually move the parents toward a more self-directed approach.
I'm glad I had those childhood experiences of choice and autonomy. They've certainly influenced my current practices.
I recently had the strange pleasure of re-reading Dragonsong - an escapist fantasy novel I read in 4th grade. I'm shocked by the reading skills of my 10 year-old self. Half a century later, warm memories of scenes, characters, and story arcs come flooding back to mind.
An unpleasant aspect of the re-read is that it also dredged up memories of why I was so deeply engrossed in escapist fantasy novels. I was so bored in elementary school I remember it as a form of torture. For middle school, my parents were able to afford a Quaker-run private school with a more unschooling-like approach and I thrived. But I still look back on 4th grade as the worst year of my life. In part because of family drama, but mostly because I would rather be waterboarded than experience the level of boredom I felt in elementary school.
Anyway, that's my bittersweet back-story. It leads me to a specific technical question. Do you mean to argue that unschooling would be better for all children? Another way of asking the question: how common is the Edison/Einstein/Goodall phenotype. Conventional wisdom would have it that the type of creative genius who would benefit from unschooling is freakishly rare.
I have three nephews and only one of them seems to be experiencing school as an institutionalized boredom torture factory the same way I did. My sense is that the other two nephews are thriving under standard formal education. So maybe a third of the general population would benefit from unschooling? Or are you invoking the dreadful scenario where all three nephews would have benefited from unschooling, if only the industrial boredom torture factory hadn't crushed the creativity out them. Ugh.
Peter, I love it when you pepper some of your life anecdotes into these essays. It sounds like your brother really lucked out with respect to your family's values, the free school, and the program he was able to join after he dropped out. It is a shame that most young people are not afforded such opportunities.
Peter - As a parent I lived out your ideas as much as I could. I came across your work in 2012, just after my first child was born. I read Free at Last, and Free to Learn, along with your articles. I looked for an “unschool,” but there were none available nearby. The closest we had was Waldorf and that didn’t fit our family. So I found the next best thing. I literally walked into a small private school and told them I wanted to unschool my daughter. It wasn’t an unschool though, but it was as close as I could find. Problem is, my daughter didn’t learn to read and I didn’t care for the political agenda of the school, so we moved to a different school with a completely different philosophy. https://www.challengerschool.com She’s doing well at this new school, but it could certainly benefit from more freedom and play. I think the answer might be halfway between unschooling and direct instruction, but there’s no way to know because public schools have crowded out schools that would emerge in a freer-market. I say we need to cut funding to public schools so that private schools like you’re suggesting can flourish. Like Arnold Kling says in this comment section, we need more school experiments so that we can figure out what works. Public neighborhood schools are a one-size fits all mediocrity that monopolize education.
I would love to see public schools replaced with unschools - learning centers, basically. As to the reading issue, I think that every child is different. I work with many students who are having difficulty learning to read or write. I don't think it contradicts unschooling philosophy. Some kids will need more direct teaching, usually in a certain subject, than others. I think it's only fair to the child to make sure they are not missing out on basic skills. If it turns out they have a learning disability, it will be more challenging to deal with when they are older. It's tricky, because I have seen ten-year-olds suddenly learn to write and spell, seemingly because they had a reason/motivation. My rule of thumb for reading is, if they're not showing any signs of learning to read by seven, it's time to gently intervene.
Good to meet you Beth and thanks for your comment. She is reading well on her own now, at age 12, but it was a struggle teaching her how to read in order to keep up with the curriculum. This issue really goes to the heart of Peter’s Substack. I see the beauty of his vision, but the one-size-fits-all status quo driven by public funding of schools, makes it so difficult do experiments. Maybe I can learn a few things from your Substack.
While I agree we need more options, how would cutting funding to public schools allow private schools to "flourish"?
Basic economics. Put yourself in parents’ shoes. 1) Parents are forced to pay for public schools through taxes. 2) If they decide to put their kids in private school, they’re now funding two schools and using one. So most parents aren’t going to do that, or can’t afford it. This crowds out the emergence of private schools. It means there are more parents that would put their kids in private schools if they weren’t forced to pay for public schools.
Or alternatively, put yourself in an educational entrepreneur’s shoes. There are men and woman that would love to start their own private school, but parents are already paying for public schools. In order to persuade parents to come to their school, they need to offer a better value than the public school. They’re forced to compete against a school that charges $0. Tell me, how many parents are going to send their kids to a school charging thousands of dollars when there’s a mediocre one charging next to nothing?
Okay, it seems you are not saying "cut funding," you are saying abolish funding so that public schools no longer exist. Very different arguments and different takeaways.
Antonio - Here’s a little more on what I’m saying about state-funds in education. https://open.substack.com/pub/scottgibb/p/religion-education-and-identity?r=nb3bl&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Please be respectful. What would you propose as a way of improving school choice? What is your explanation for why there are so few private schools of the type that Peter Gray advocates? How can we help him?
I just wanted clarification on the notion that reducing funding for public schools would somehow allow private schools to flourish--it sounds pretty far fetched. Your follow up response indicates that what you meant to say was that funding for public schools should cease to exist, or be cut to zero, which seems to suggest that you believe that public schools should cease to exist.
I agree that eradicating public schools would lead to a proliferation of private schools, although I believe that almost every private school that stood up in its wake would be a conventional private school, and not the type of Self-Directed Education centers (e.g., free school) that Peter referenced. Hence, not the type of accessible and unbounded choice that I would hope for.
Having actually run a Self-Directed Education community for 7 years, I have a slew of reasons to explain why there are not more SDE centers. It is a long list. The existence of public schools is not very high on that list.
Feel free to share your work on this if you’ve written about. I’m curious what you have to say.
Hmm, I have to think a lot about that.
I was a teacher for forty years, and I spent a lot of time in learning support.
There were some of my pupils, including those diagnosed with dyslexia and those who weren't, who needed such a variety of strategies to learn to read.
How would those children fare in an unschooling situation?
Some people I know attended school when schooling was 'unschooled.' They missed out on Maths skills, and I'm sure others must have missed out on literacy if they were unable to pick it up by osmosis?
The examples given of people who thrived were chosen by selective attention, I'm guessing. What percentage of the unschooled did they constitute? What percentage of the unscheduled did not thrive?
I think that direct teaching in unschooling is absolutely fair if the child needs it. I work with kids with disabilities, too, and I'm sure some would not learn to read or spell without some intervention. If this can be set up one-on-one it usually works with short daily sessions. They can devote the rest of their day to self-directed learning.
I just love love love these examples of how the unschooled child has become a fulfilled adult.
I know for myself that I would have LOVED to have been unschooled. I was really happy until I was 4 1/4 and went to school - and it was all downhill from that moment :(.
It has taken me years to discover who I truly am and what I'm great at - before then I only knew what I was useless at.
I love your brother's story. I unschool my almost 11 yo son - always have since birth. And I still wish he had more free time! When I observe what he chooses to do in his free time, that is when I learn most about him and how his brain works.
This past year, he has a huge interest in learning different sports so he's on a lot of teams and trying things out. Even though he doesn't attend school, sports practices do capitalize a lot of time which I don't prefer. Up until recently, he delved deep into building anything lego and robotics. I love seeing him explore and going through different phases of interests. I try not to project what he will do in his teen years b/c, like your brother, new passions may arise and I don't want to limit his thinking that all his different passions contradict each other. I'm a big believer in trying a wide variety of things to learn about oneself.
Both my husband and I said if we were reincarnated, we'd want to come back as our son b/c he gets to do so many things whereas we couldn't growing up due to either financial constraints or lack of support from parents into anything "nonacademic."
Our youngest son (11) has developed a passionate interest for planes over the past two years. He spends hours at a time carefully constructing model planes, installing electronics, and designing. As we homeschool, he can spend all his free time after we get academics done pursuing this passion. He has now been able to connect with a group of three boys and an RC plane veteran (a retired senior with the same passion) who is apprenticing them into more complicated designs.
I agree that when children are given the opportunity to simply have free time - which is not filled with digital distractions or endless scheduled extracurricular classes - they find the most amazing pursuits to pour their energies into. Thanks for your writing Peter!
A year and a half ago, every time I took a walk near a tiny stream near me, I would see three kids smoking pot when they otherwise would have been at school. That is another form of unschooling, and I doubt that it will work out well. Ideally, unschooling would work better for the majority of young people, but I don't know how we can be certain until one does a controlled experiment with random selection of the treatment group, rather than looking at a sample of kids who selected out of school and had parents who permitted that.
Good point. There is a big difference between dropping out, with a sense of failure or cynicism, and rising out, with an attitude that this is better for me than school. Still, I do wonder about those three kids. We don't know what they were talking or thinking about as they sat there smoking pot, or what followed next in their lives. Many great people (Tolstoy is an example) went through early phases of looking like they were going to waste their lives. Even at schools designed for Self-Directed Education and among unschoolers, we see that some kids who come from coercive schooling need a period of recovery, in which they appear to do nothing (but who knows what is going on inside) before they take control of their lives.
The experiment has happened - in all the years throughout the history of the world where there was no coercive schooling! All of Peter's work shows this. For a relatively short time, we've tried coercing children into the "right" education, and it has not turned out any better results. It may even be extremely harmful, as we are beginning to learn.
Luckily, many people have risen out of the system that keeps kids down to create a wide expanse of opportunities for anyone to educate themselves by following their passion - with our without parent permission.