My friends and I were talking the other day about the theory that what we call 'neurotypical' today is in fact another form of neurodiversity - but it's the form that most benefits a capitalist society, and our education system's capacity to churn out compliant work units.
yesss! i totally agree. The problem with changing the system,I find, is that we are the lobsters in the pot. So many ppl seem to have given away their auto-powers of discernment, curiosity, engagement and need for an authentic and healthy community. Many ppl are not inconvenienced enough to question the system, as it is bearable for them. Capitalist power hoarding narratives serving few, and dividing many, ignoring the realities that we are facing now, this economic narrative has been adopted and personally integrated by far too many. Personally, i find building community to be incredibly challenging these days. So tricky! It feels far different than what I grew up with and that is quite worrying. I don't mind change, bring on the progressive changes! Not a Luddite, although prefer analogue vibes & am not particularly nostalgic either as am a member of the BIPOC population and yet, it seems in my youth things were working towards more humane collective futures. All energy towards looking where we want to go. I figure micro efforts are all can do. #WhereDoWeGoFromHereChaosorCommunity? #DrMartinLutherKingJr #FreeToBe
yes! Schools support capitalist agendas in ALL ways. I will say, now that I am a parent forced into homeschooling, I will say that I find perhaps that public schools may be worse now, compared to when I was a child. I myself have been "lucky" enough to experience many different systems as my family was very restless and we moved between 3 different countries, many homes and provinces. I say lucky, only because when I returned to public school after attending a private school I saw how stark the difference was between those 2 schools, although neither suited me well. I have experienced homeschooling, grassroots community schooling, public schooling and private schooling. I am now a parent and have also worked in many different schools and school systems. It is a terrifying conundrum. I see how the wealth gap is being widened, particularly for bipoc and lower-income children. As well I see how imaginations are being limited and the body-mind, community rapport building has been terribly disrupted. Some things have improved of course, learning differences perhaps and also less conventional and controlling attitudes towards definitions of gender, but sadly the progress has not been evenly distributed I find. I just read a few pages of your book when I was waiting somewhere and it was available for me to read. The passage I read was the one describing your experience with your 9 year old son and the school. I had such a similar and horrific and frightening experience with my son's school refusal. So extreme! Although I found how your son acted out to be full of a beautiful wise cheeky humour. I can't wait to read the whole book! thank you so much for sharing your experiences. More to write but this is an essay already lol.
Mmmm and I would love to know what you all think about things. How do you stave off compassion fatigue? How do you negotiate within the confines of capitalism and surface shallow community building? How do you root and ground yourself in joy and faith and steady yourself for this parenting ride? How do you heal your childhood wounds so they no longer haunt you and detract from your self-regulation and delightful joyous responsible mentorship of youth? How how how? What do you seeeee? I wanna know, merci :).
I hated school for this reason, and now I have a child who hates school and tells me, "I would love school if we could just play with our friends all day. But its like torture because our friends are around us but we can't talk to them or play with them". They only get 15 minutes recess and 20 mintes lunch (half of which they are forced to sit down and eat). He is a good student but very bored and angry at the end of every day, and has a generally negative attitude towards the teachers, even the good ones. I'm tempted to keep him at home but he is very social and gets bored, and there are few homeschoolers in our area. I wish someone would reform school over night so our kids could start enjoying it!
You should educate him at home then! There are plenty of ways to interact with people as a home school student. Socialization is not just about playing with your friends. One of the key benefits of home school is that children learn to interact with all ages and stages; they are not limited to only being nice to people who are within 1-2 years of their own age. A good student will get his work done in 2-4 hours (depends on age) and then he can do some of this creative play that this substack likes to talk about. :-)
Training (apprenticeship), indoctrination (religious, political, cultural), education (independent thinking). Each has important domains of application, unfortunately the factory school system focuses almost exclusively on training & indoctrination (the stark case of the muslim madras where exact repetition without any interpretive deviation of the Koran is permitted.)
Surprisingly, naval & military academies actually have done a creditable job blending the three modalities over many decades, —most services require officers with working brains.
From what I can recall from readings decades ago on the Prussian school system, it was very effective and eschewed physical punishment.
Lastly, after 39 years of naval service I lasted 3 months teaching in a US public school, not because I didn't love the youth I was working with, but because I couldn't stand the depressing feeling of being a jailer. (& that's saying a lot from someone that spent years at sea, for as Boswell put it, "Being on a ship is like being in jail, with the possibility of sinking.")
Great article. I agree with everything and also included this history in my book, Navigating the Shock of Parenthood. Most parents in the US go into parenthood with no conscious awareness of why we do what we do. When we shed light on the origins of things that affect parenting then parents can make more intentional choices for their kids.
Love the point of how "willfulness" was once a virtue that led to exploration and internally motivated growth.
I have a few things to add. First, as you note, the workers rights and children's rights movements pushed kids out of factories and some farms and into schools. But another thing has occurred since then that has had a profound effect on how we school. That is fear based politics. The Cold War, Sputnik, the rise of Japanese auto industry, the economic rise of China...all these and other things have created a political fear of "falling behind." This fear has been pushed off onto the shoulders of children who are supposed to out compete "foreign" children to the betterment of the US. It is important for parents to understand that these fears are adult problems that we should not be pushing off onto the shoulders of kids.
There are two other issues I think we need to talk about when attempting to change and improve how childhood education occurs. As the mother of 15y/o twins, one of my most important jobs has been to protect their love of learning. This has required endless investigation of schools, moving my kids when places were bad, private Montessori when they were young, and the good fortune of having found a public school that is fully project based with both school and student chosen personal projects. I've never regretted pulling them from a bad environment and getting them some where good. When you watch that love of learning reblossom in your kid it sticks with you. Now, that said...
First, when we talk about schooling for all kids we need to remember that the human brain is hardwired to learn spoken language but not written language. And 20% of all kids have dyslexia. 5-20% have dysgraphia. 5-20% have dyscalculia. These kids can be taught to read, write, and do math but it won't come "naturally" to them. So while I believe in unleashing the innate desire to learn within each child, I also think we, as the adults in the room, need to be aware of these potential issue, screen for them, and support kids who need it.
Second, I think there is something to be said for balance. When I look back on my college courses some of the very best of them were ones I took to fulfill basic requirements. They included: Controlling Stress and Tension, On Death and Dying, an amazing Art History class, the Physics of Light, and Life in the Oceans. The last one ultimately led me to my self designed major in Underwater Cinematography. (Not practical, but led to a great education) My point is that being exposed to things we didn't know would be interesting can be deeply enriching to both adults and children.
Right now the US is stuck on building education through an "accountability" goal. We need to drop kick that whole perspective right out of the stadium. Instead we need to focus on a "nurturing the love of learning" tree. Freeing the love of learning. Joy in learning. It doesn't fit with the patriarchy, or religious dogma, or political fears, or endless efforts of the powerful to control the less powerful. But it is the only way we will truly unleash the potential of kids. Because right now they are largely on a very tight leash.
I write on special education and fixing public education on my free substack site: Kathleen Cawley for Navigating Modern Parenthood
Thank you Peter Gray! I've been following you for many years and your book helped give me the validation to fight for my kids love of learning.
Your history of education doesn't take into account education in Roman times, as well as Indian schooling that persisted in a similar form for at least 2500 years until the British came and dismantled it in the 18th century. I have documented the dismantling and what it was like prior to it in a series of posts here: https://lila.substack.com/p/the-beautiful-tree-indian-indigenous
But in short:
Children in India were sent to village schools starting at 5, and continued to be educated till they were 13-15. It seems like some kind of ability grouping was what was used. In some areas, schools went from dawn to dusk, even (with a long break in between for lunch and naps). Schools were free and open to everyone in the village. The teachers came from the village, and the school was funded by land grants (so, property taxes). There was specialized higher education after primary schooling, and that often took the form of living in a teacher's home and learning from him. Even higher education was also there, and involved going to major universities far away. They involved entrance exams - literally administered at the entrance of the university, and students came from Cambodia, Indonesia, and Thailand to study at these places.
Most people didn't go into higher education. Most people did do vocational education, but they were taught the basics in school, including accounts, record-keeping, basics of money, math, science and technology, and other subjects the villagers thought was relevant to their children. There are accounts of many children becoming financially independent by age 14 despite living at home, but until then, they were supposed to stay in school.
Those who went into higher education did so to study medicine, law, and administration, as well as philosophy and other deep research subjects.
Prior to conquering India, the British didn't have schools that scaled, and the average British child had about 1 year of schooling. In the 16th and 17th centuries, schools were shut down because too many people were learning to read who had no business doing so, and they were reading the Bible, taking it literally and rioting, so reach wasn't good.
What the British noticed in India was that teachers would have the brightest children instruct the rest, and this enabled one teacher to scale teaching to a much larger number of students. This was called the Madras method, and there is actually a school in Scotland called the Madras College that pioneered this method in British schools. This enabled them to scale up education.
Christian notions about children and the nature of good and evil seem to be at the core of why education in the west was so despised by children. I used to think it was a uniquely Indian or Asian thing to hit kids for not learning fast enough, but after talking to American boomers in Catholic schools, and studying the history of Native american boarding schools, the patterns are quite clear to me - religious teachers beat the shit out of children for not complying, and called it discipline. I wonder sometimes if the issue here is the monks and nuns who ran these schools didn't have any experience of parenting, and hence thanks to their religious conditioning, saw children as imperfect, evil things that needed the evil beaten out of them rather than as full human beings. Most Indian sources about teaching seem to involve the teacher conducting themselves respectfully and being like a parent to the children. Even today, the kind of respect accorded to teachers is something else, we have a whole festival dating back to ancient times involving honoring teachers.
Even in times of war and destruction, it has been noticed that parents in India in the 18th century were trying to create a schooling pod much like during the pandemic, and hire tutors to teach their children. So school has been quite important and valued in the East, even if not in the West historically.
After delving into the history of education in India in contrast with that in England and Scotland, and their rise and fall, I've come to the conclusion that you need to have children in some kind of organized education during their formative years. Free universal public education is important for every child to have a chance in any kind of advanced society. Especially if you want to have qualified doctors, vaccines and rule of law, or want to build specialized things like ships and cotton looms. These topics can't be absorbed by playing. Instruction is the easiest way to learn these things. Ability grouping solves a lot of problems rather than age-wise grouping.
I also watch a lot of unschooling influencer videos, and... there are a ton of illiterate children there. My own experience trying to educate my child has me convinced that you need direct instruction. Maybe 1-1 instruction, but instruction nonetheless. Kids don't happen into reading and writing. It requires a lot of concerted cultivation.
Most people don't want no schools, they just want better schools. Look at this post and the discussions on there https://www.cartoonshateher.com/p/what-if-school-is-bad-actually It seems like most kids' problems with school would be solved by a higher caliber of teachers and ability grouping.
One of the most mindblowing things I'm finding is that education and early childhood education majors consistently have the lowest IQs and SAT scores of everyone in college. I had my kid's kindergarten teacher ask me 'what is that word, a-p-p-a-r-a-t-u-s, what does it mean?' just last week. Seems like the stupidest people with no other options are becoming teachers these days. You can only coast on social skills and warmth for so long, you need a high IQ to figure out how to solve your students' problems with learning and how to manage the classroom.
Kids need to be around high-IQ people to actually learn. Direct instruction is most efficient, but if you want your kids to learn by playing, you need them to play with smart people. That's not happening in public schools these days and isn't happening for the kids of unschooling influencers.
A lot of great information in your comment but saddened to see you end it with a major hit on teachers saying “the stupidest people with no other options” are becoming teachers. As a School Counselor for 18 years, the majority of the teachers I’ve worked are passionate about helping kids learn, recognize the way in which the system is messed up, and are pretty darn smart. Sorry your kids teacher didn’t know what an apparatus was…. Those of us who are dedicated to public education and trying to improve it each and every day do deserve some respect.
My kid's teachers so far have been ECE majors, a major with among the lowest SAT scores. I've spent some time in their classes, and it feels like obvious solutions to maintaining order doesnt occur to them. Older teachers all seem quite amazing. The younger ones, I find it hard to have faith in. Have met several socially before I had kids who say such mean things about the kids they teach. There's normal whining and then there's the whining where you just seem incompetent at your job and it was definitely the latter. Plus, they don't have their own kids so they dont understand child psychology.
The best thing I've found for my kid (getting to be 5yo) has been -- small ratios, teacher not that highly educated but has kids/grandkids, and runs the place like their family. This profile of person doesn't work well if they are in a big daycare with rules and curriculum - the rules and curriculum make them less warm and less likely to teach things in ways that work for them.
Teachers can have the best intentions, but if they are in a system that punishes agency, the smartest will leave. When that happens, order is maintained less, more kids fall through the cracks, the overall environment feels more oppressive to kids.
Fabulous comment. I love hearing about the education in other cultures! Have you read "Battle for the American Mind" by chance? That book touches on the classical form of education and also the history of education in the United States (especially late 1800's and after). I think we do owe monasteries, well Christianity really, our thanks for preserving the Bible and other knowledge during the Dark Ages. (Christianity really challenged the idea that only a select few deserved to be able to read & think & be fully human; it extended that courtesy to women and children and all men. And thus, all should be educated.) I think it really was the Industrial Revolution that screwed things up as for as the format that was/is used for education. But your idea of having adults who have never had children (monks & nuns) as instructors has a lot of merit as well; I did not understand or really like children until I had my own and actually had time to get to know them through all the stages of development. Children absolutely need guidance! I've learned a bit about the classical education style during my years as a home educator as well, and I really appreciated learning about the three different stages of learning. It is amazing to me the amount of information children can memorize at a young age! Yes, they will do it on their own or if it's a favorite subject, but teaching them in a fun and age appropriate way (using games even!) is very efficient.
Universal education isn't really a Christian idea. In the light of the protestant reformation, governments in many European countries stopped people from learning to read so they wouldn't go on pogroms after reading the Bible.
There was a lot of violence between Catholics and protestants in England in the 16th and 17th century. Thats what I was talking about. It was part of what made the Puritans come to America.
Ah, yes, I am familiar with that. Thank you for clarifying. Sadly, many people who claim Christianity are not true followers of Jesus, and many do not read the Bible for themselves. Partially why literacy and critical thinking skills (logic) are two key components of education! That's a large part of why I like the idea of classical education. Did you know there is an Association of Classical Christian Schools (in the USA)? Very exciting! (my children do not attend one, but I really like the idea)
Reading this article makes me even less hopeful that there’s a real solution for our school system.
The intention behind today’s educational model hasn’t changed. I love when you say that “education was understood as inculcation.” Because if that’s still the goal, then the system is thriving — a massive success. It’s doing exactly what it was designed to do until this day: serving the interests of those in charge.
And if that’s the case, there may be no real way to change it from within. It’s more powerful to inspire others to step outside of it. Let it collapse on its own. Meanwhile, we can build parallel alternatives — spaces that actually serve more and more people.
And maybe we need to stop calling it school altogether. That word is too loaded, too broken. We need a new name — one that honors a place where children can truly learn, where their natural passion for discovery is nurtured, where they grow alongside others of all ages and backgrounds.
The older I get, the more convinced I am of one basic human truth - that people are happiest when they are able to do things that they enjoy doing.
Throughout history, there are endless examples of both adults and children being forced to do things (I'm afraid organised religion has a lot to answer for - I'm sure Jesus would be horrified to see what has gone on in His name...).
We are not on this planet for very long. Studying family history over the past few years has made me realise how insignificant we all are. We shuffle on to this mortal coil, do a few things and shuffle off again. After a while, very few people remember us and these lives of ours have had little or no effect on many.
In my first week in teacher training college (aged 18, in 1974), I remember thinking, 'This is all WRONG.' I knew instinctively that children didn't like doing 'work', yet here I was learning how to make them do it. I had a major problem with the word 'work' (and still do).
I don't know that I was much of a 'player' as a child. But I do know that I loved being at home and that my whole life started a very big downward spiral from the time I went to school at 4 1/4. My grandparents had a smallholding and I grew up surrounded by chickens, greenhouses, growing things. My mum didn't work so I helped in the kitchen. I adored reading so just wanted to do that. I know how very happy I would have been to have stayed at home. I hated school, I hated other children, I was scared of the teachers, and I knew I wasn't any good at anything. At 18 I had no personality, few interests, nothing I was good at - and certainly no confidence. It's all why I feel so strongly about 'education', even though I'm long out of the school system (thank goodness).
It's SO time that people on both sides of the pond started to listen to people like you, Peter - and Naomi Fisher - and started to question accepted norms.
I thank God every day that I had parents who never put the SLIGHTEST bit of pressure on me (or my sister) to do anything, or be anything, or 'achieve' anything. They gave us the freedom throughout our lives to follow whatever direction we wanted, in the knowledge they were there to catch us if we fell - with the result that we both achieved WAY more than we ever thought possible. I found my tribe and my element and I know I've inspired many with my particular way of 'teaching'.
We just need to Let People Be. I think, when I grow up, I'd like to be a hunter-gatherer...
Mr. Gray, thank you for expressing a sentiment I truly believe should be taught to teachers while the children get busy with play, and allow them to share their discoveries.
I work at a school that had a mindset of inculcating students, and was let go because I created conflict with the pedagogy of the more taciturn senior teachers in my department. But in the meeting with the vice principal whose job it was to dismiss me, something interesting happened; I misunderstood the kind language he was using to fire me, and interpreted the dismissal as a 'wait-and-see' if there are enough classes to spread among the teachers. I suggested in the meantime that I create an after-school space where play is encouraged, and the students are able to come and go as they please.
The VP was surprised that I had recalled his hope of turning the memorial space in the school to something akin to the student lounges he saw at the local universities on a field trip. He loved that students had a place to relax, and engage more naturally with native English teachers, that didn't centre around lessons, rote memory, and tests. This coincided with my interest in David Eggers 826 Valencia operation that hired volunteers to tutor students after school. I just never thought a school would consider turning school space into a place where discovery could take on the form of play, and that Wonder could be the guiding force I encouraged students to trust.
8 years later, I'm an activity program coordinator at the school where my mission is to give students a chance to learn through play. It's part-time work, but it is liberating for both the students and I. Parents and graduates see the benefit in what has occurred. And the school is also grateful to have a safe space for fun to happen on school grounds. Never in a million years would I think such an idea would fly in Japan, but our Global Lounge has survived through the lean years of Covid-19, and new students who recalled seeing it on Open School tours come bounding in to play, laugh, and feel relieved to be something more than the cookie-cutter version that everyone else expects them to be.
Peter, thank you for walking us through the history of education. As a scientist and a parent, I’ve often felt that something is deeply off in how we think about education, but your writing gives it structure, clarity, and urgency.
I see it in my own daughter. At just three years old, she’s bursting with questions, play, and imagination. And yet I worry how much of that will survive once school tells her learning is “work” and play is a reward.
That’s why I recently started a publication, Playful Brains, to help other parents protect that spark, and to show that kids learn best when we stop trying to control every part of the process. In fact, my research showed that parents only have very limited time (4.3 yrs waking time and 1.3 yrs play time) with their kids throughout their whole life! (https://playfulbrains.substack.com/p/you-only-have-13-years-of-playtime)
Your work has been a huge inspiration.
The line about how school teaches kids the difference between work and play hit me hard. What if we raised a generation who never learned that false split?
Thank you again for giving us the history, the vision, and the courage to imagine something better.
Ricky Lanusse has an interesting post wrestling with the idea that our teach-to-the-test education system is systematically snuffing out minds that might otherwise have become world-changing geniuses:
He asserts that many geniuses of yore had expensive private tutors - and he provocatively entertains the idea that AI may now be on the verge of being able to serve as an inexpensive tutor. It's an attractive hypothesis. If I picture myself simply being turned loose with Perplexity at age 10 I'm only able to imagine society would have gotten a lot more utility out of me. My most vivid memories of fourth grade are from weekend library trips and home experiments where I learned about barometric pressure, fungal spores, and nuclear reactors. Even if self-directed exploration didn't turn me into a more useful citizen, at least I would have been a much happier human being. I would never have tortured myself with learning to divide fractions or memorizing the dates of military battles, but I would certainly have discovered the life stories of some of the more obscure members of my personal pantheon of scientific, economic, and political heroes at a much younger age.
Do you share the sense that AI tutoring might provide a new way to finally start liberating kids from this unsinkable jail we've constructed for them?
I’ve worked as an educator for 12 years in public, private, and out of school programs. What I think is so important about this history is that even “good” schools are rooted in it and follow the indoctrination approach. “Good” schools are so primarily because they have fewer issues with obedience, and most parents are totally oblivious to that fact. If you are sending your kid to a traditional school of any kind, there is no way around that. As challenging as it is, the way to change this is to begin shifting what we place value on as parents and teachers - rather than obedience, kids following their own path and interests.
Such a lovely read - it traces how children’s roles have evolved over time. I especially loved how you pointed out how systems position “learning as child’s work.” When we step back and let them steer, learning (through play) unfolds so naturally. In fact, I wonder shouldn’t we see children as the true experts in learning and unlearn some of our own conditioned ideas about education?
Very good article. And I also read some of the insightful comments by other subscribers. But if we extend this thought process, then how would children be able to compete and survive in such a fast-growing world that requires knowledge of math/science and such? I am super fan of playful childhood, but a structured learning environment to expose them to nature, laws, morality, ... are basic whether learned at home or something called school.
An enlightening history, thank you for summarizing in this easy-to-digest format! Although I do think there are benefits to separating work and play (such as having time free from serving employers’ and/or public needs), it is particularly interesting how there once was no distinction, and all was simply the way of living.
The thing is, many people feel school didn’t even fully or adequately prepare them for work. I’m a millennial who was unschooled until my teens, and the most important things I feel were missing in high school were the following:
- Knowledge of how to practically apply what we learned in daily life. Most subjects were taught outside of any practical context, and although we could plug numbers into a formula and get the answer that matched the books, we couldn’t tell you how to use it. In second language classes we memorized vocabulary lists, but didn’t have the chance to use the language to communicate with another person. Consequently, a lot of what we learned was forgotten as soon as our one use for it—“remember the thing we’re supposed to say so we get a good grade and get a better job”—was gone.
- A sense that our work had meaning to and impact on other people. We handed in essays that usually were read by one person, given a pass/fail—frequently based on what that one person wanted us to say—and then thrown away with no discussion. Compare this to writing freely on the internet, where we can receive responses, understanding, connection, and enlightenment. There is reward to be found when we share our thoughts with people who may be receptive and understanding of what we say, and/or offer an alternate perspective. But when our words are valued based on how much they adhere to criteria established by just one person or group of people, it can feel like there’s no use in speaking at all.
- A sense that we were working together and each playing a role to achieve a common goal. Learning was done in solitary, and we each received an individual grade. The goal was not something tangible like, “Plant native flowers to create native habitat” or, “Distribute this information to people in a way that they understand”—it was, “Say what the teachers want to hear so you get a high number so people will see you as a valuable person.” It was about the individual, working in a vacuum, being assigned value in a vacuum. We didn’t see the impact of our work on others or that we were contributing something valuable to a greater whole.
I feel that I learn more from one day of shadowing someone on a job than I learned in the years I spent in public school. If it were easier to get access to this experience, I feel that many people would learn much faster from watching and following along with someone who is doing actual work than in all the years spent in school. If certain knowledge is needed for the work, then it makes sense to study it. But studying with no practical application is a recipe for forgetting.
I do believe in some amount of guidance and direction, as with basic math and literacy. But I often wish school could be replaced with some form of apprenticeships, where people are allowed to choose what interests them and shadow someone who does it for work, learning and training to do it themselves.
I don't believe that work should be seen as the ultimate goal or value of a person. However, most people do want to be meaningfully engaged and occupied in some way. And school is failing to show us how to find meaning in our work—often as well as how to do the work itself.
My friends and I were talking the other day about the theory that what we call 'neurotypical' today is in fact another form of neurodiversity - but it's the form that most benefits a capitalist society, and our education system's capacity to churn out compliant work units.
yesss! i totally agree. The problem with changing the system,I find, is that we are the lobsters in the pot. So many ppl seem to have given away their auto-powers of discernment, curiosity, engagement and need for an authentic and healthy community. Many ppl are not inconvenienced enough to question the system, as it is bearable for them. Capitalist power hoarding narratives serving few, and dividing many, ignoring the realities that we are facing now, this economic narrative has been adopted and personally integrated by far too many. Personally, i find building community to be incredibly challenging these days. So tricky! It feels far different than what I grew up with and that is quite worrying. I don't mind change, bring on the progressive changes! Not a Luddite, although prefer analogue vibes & am not particularly nostalgic either as am a member of the BIPOC population and yet, it seems in my youth things were working towards more humane collective futures. All energy towards looking where we want to go. I figure micro efforts are all can do. #WhereDoWeGoFromHereChaosorCommunity? #DrMartinLutherKingJr #FreeToBe
I've never thought of it this way - so true!
yes! Schools support capitalist agendas in ALL ways. I will say, now that I am a parent forced into homeschooling, I will say that I find perhaps that public schools may be worse now, compared to when I was a child. I myself have been "lucky" enough to experience many different systems as my family was very restless and we moved between 3 different countries, many homes and provinces. I say lucky, only because when I returned to public school after attending a private school I saw how stark the difference was between those 2 schools, although neither suited me well. I have experienced homeschooling, grassroots community schooling, public schooling and private schooling. I am now a parent and have also worked in many different schools and school systems. It is a terrifying conundrum. I see how the wealth gap is being widened, particularly for bipoc and lower-income children. As well I see how imaginations are being limited and the body-mind, community rapport building has been terribly disrupted. Some things have improved of course, learning differences perhaps and also less conventional and controlling attitudes towards definitions of gender, but sadly the progress has not been evenly distributed I find. I just read a few pages of your book when I was waiting somewhere and it was available for me to read. The passage I read was the one describing your experience with your 9 year old son and the school. I had such a similar and horrific and frightening experience with my son's school refusal. So extreme! Although I found how your son acted out to be full of a beautiful wise cheeky humour. I can't wait to read the whole book! thank you so much for sharing your experiences. More to write but this is an essay already lol.
Also, I don't know if you mentioned this as I read your article too quickly. The school system particularly took off after slavery became illegal.
Industrial Revolution & the American school system
https://montessorium.com/blog/industrial-revolution-and-american-education
Mmmm and I would love to know what you all think about things. How do you stave off compassion fatigue? How do you negotiate within the confines of capitalism and surface shallow community building? How do you root and ground yourself in joy and faith and steady yourself for this parenting ride? How do you heal your childhood wounds so they no longer haunt you and detract from your self-regulation and delightful joyous responsible mentorship of youth? How how how? What do you seeeee? I wanna know, merci :).
I hated school for this reason, and now I have a child who hates school and tells me, "I would love school if we could just play with our friends all day. But its like torture because our friends are around us but we can't talk to them or play with them". They only get 15 minutes recess and 20 mintes lunch (half of which they are forced to sit down and eat). He is a good student but very bored and angry at the end of every day, and has a generally negative attitude towards the teachers, even the good ones. I'm tempted to keep him at home but he is very social and gets bored, and there are few homeschoolers in our area. I wish someone would reform school over night so our kids could start enjoying it!
You should educate him at home then! There are plenty of ways to interact with people as a home school student. Socialization is not just about playing with your friends. One of the key benefits of home school is that children learn to interact with all ages and stages; they are not limited to only being nice to people who are within 1-2 years of their own age. A good student will get his work done in 2-4 hours (depends on age) and then he can do some of this creative play that this substack likes to talk about. :-)
Training (apprenticeship), indoctrination (religious, political, cultural), education (independent thinking). Each has important domains of application, unfortunately the factory school system focuses almost exclusively on training & indoctrination (the stark case of the muslim madras where exact repetition without any interpretive deviation of the Koran is permitted.)
Surprisingly, naval & military academies actually have done a creditable job blending the three modalities over many decades, —most services require officers with working brains.
From what I can recall from readings decades ago on the Prussian school system, it was very effective and eschewed physical punishment.
Lastly, after 39 years of naval service I lasted 3 months teaching in a US public school, not because I didn't love the youth I was working with, but because I couldn't stand the depressing feeling of being a jailer. (& that's saying a lot from someone that spent years at sea, for as Boswell put it, "Being on a ship is like being in jail, with the possibility of sinking.")
Great article. I agree with everything and also included this history in my book, Navigating the Shock of Parenthood. Most parents in the US go into parenthood with no conscious awareness of why we do what we do. When we shed light on the origins of things that affect parenting then parents can make more intentional choices for their kids.
Love the point of how "willfulness" was once a virtue that led to exploration and internally motivated growth.
I have a few things to add. First, as you note, the workers rights and children's rights movements pushed kids out of factories and some farms and into schools. But another thing has occurred since then that has had a profound effect on how we school. That is fear based politics. The Cold War, Sputnik, the rise of Japanese auto industry, the economic rise of China...all these and other things have created a political fear of "falling behind." This fear has been pushed off onto the shoulders of children who are supposed to out compete "foreign" children to the betterment of the US. It is important for parents to understand that these fears are adult problems that we should not be pushing off onto the shoulders of kids.
There are two other issues I think we need to talk about when attempting to change and improve how childhood education occurs. As the mother of 15y/o twins, one of my most important jobs has been to protect their love of learning. This has required endless investigation of schools, moving my kids when places were bad, private Montessori when they were young, and the good fortune of having found a public school that is fully project based with both school and student chosen personal projects. I've never regretted pulling them from a bad environment and getting them some where good. When you watch that love of learning reblossom in your kid it sticks with you. Now, that said...
First, when we talk about schooling for all kids we need to remember that the human brain is hardwired to learn spoken language but not written language. And 20% of all kids have dyslexia. 5-20% have dysgraphia. 5-20% have dyscalculia. These kids can be taught to read, write, and do math but it won't come "naturally" to them. So while I believe in unleashing the innate desire to learn within each child, I also think we, as the adults in the room, need to be aware of these potential issue, screen for them, and support kids who need it.
Second, I think there is something to be said for balance. When I look back on my college courses some of the very best of them were ones I took to fulfill basic requirements. They included: Controlling Stress and Tension, On Death and Dying, an amazing Art History class, the Physics of Light, and Life in the Oceans. The last one ultimately led me to my self designed major in Underwater Cinematography. (Not practical, but led to a great education) My point is that being exposed to things we didn't know would be interesting can be deeply enriching to both adults and children.
Right now the US is stuck on building education through an "accountability" goal. We need to drop kick that whole perspective right out of the stadium. Instead we need to focus on a "nurturing the love of learning" tree. Freeing the love of learning. Joy in learning. It doesn't fit with the patriarchy, or religious dogma, or political fears, or endless efforts of the powerful to control the less powerful. But it is the only way we will truly unleash the potential of kids. Because right now they are largely on a very tight leash.
I write on special education and fixing public education on my free substack site: Kathleen Cawley for Navigating Modern Parenthood
Thank you Peter Gray! I've been following you for many years and your book helped give me the validation to fight for my kids love of learning.
Your history of education doesn't take into account education in Roman times, as well as Indian schooling that persisted in a similar form for at least 2500 years until the British came and dismantled it in the 18th century. I have documented the dismantling and what it was like prior to it in a series of posts here: https://lila.substack.com/p/the-beautiful-tree-indian-indigenous
But in short:
Children in India were sent to village schools starting at 5, and continued to be educated till they were 13-15. It seems like some kind of ability grouping was what was used. In some areas, schools went from dawn to dusk, even (with a long break in between for lunch and naps). Schools were free and open to everyone in the village. The teachers came from the village, and the school was funded by land grants (so, property taxes). There was specialized higher education after primary schooling, and that often took the form of living in a teacher's home and learning from him. Even higher education was also there, and involved going to major universities far away. They involved entrance exams - literally administered at the entrance of the university, and students came from Cambodia, Indonesia, and Thailand to study at these places.
Most people didn't go into higher education. Most people did do vocational education, but they were taught the basics in school, including accounts, record-keeping, basics of money, math, science and technology, and other subjects the villagers thought was relevant to their children. There are accounts of many children becoming financially independent by age 14 despite living at home, but until then, they were supposed to stay in school.
Those who went into higher education did so to study medicine, law, and administration, as well as philosophy and other deep research subjects.
Prior to conquering India, the British didn't have schools that scaled, and the average British child had about 1 year of schooling. In the 16th and 17th centuries, schools were shut down because too many people were learning to read who had no business doing so, and they were reading the Bible, taking it literally and rioting, so reach wasn't good.
What the British noticed in India was that teachers would have the brightest children instruct the rest, and this enabled one teacher to scale teaching to a much larger number of students. This was called the Madras method, and there is actually a school in Scotland called the Madras College that pioneered this method in British schools. This enabled them to scale up education.
Christian notions about children and the nature of good and evil seem to be at the core of why education in the west was so despised by children. I used to think it was a uniquely Indian or Asian thing to hit kids for not learning fast enough, but after talking to American boomers in Catholic schools, and studying the history of Native american boarding schools, the patterns are quite clear to me - religious teachers beat the shit out of children for not complying, and called it discipline. I wonder sometimes if the issue here is the monks and nuns who ran these schools didn't have any experience of parenting, and hence thanks to their religious conditioning, saw children as imperfect, evil things that needed the evil beaten out of them rather than as full human beings. Most Indian sources about teaching seem to involve the teacher conducting themselves respectfully and being like a parent to the children. Even today, the kind of respect accorded to teachers is something else, we have a whole festival dating back to ancient times involving honoring teachers.
Even in times of war and destruction, it has been noticed that parents in India in the 18th century were trying to create a schooling pod much like during the pandemic, and hire tutors to teach their children. So school has been quite important and valued in the East, even if not in the West historically.
After delving into the history of education in India in contrast with that in England and Scotland, and their rise and fall, I've come to the conclusion that you need to have children in some kind of organized education during their formative years. Free universal public education is important for every child to have a chance in any kind of advanced society. Especially if you want to have qualified doctors, vaccines and rule of law, or want to build specialized things like ships and cotton looms. These topics can't be absorbed by playing. Instruction is the easiest way to learn these things. Ability grouping solves a lot of problems rather than age-wise grouping.
I also watch a lot of unschooling influencer videos, and... there are a ton of illiterate children there. My own experience trying to educate my child has me convinced that you need direct instruction. Maybe 1-1 instruction, but instruction nonetheless. Kids don't happen into reading and writing. It requires a lot of concerted cultivation.
Most people don't want no schools, they just want better schools. Look at this post and the discussions on there https://www.cartoonshateher.com/p/what-if-school-is-bad-actually It seems like most kids' problems with school would be solved by a higher caliber of teachers and ability grouping.
One of the most mindblowing things I'm finding is that education and early childhood education majors consistently have the lowest IQs and SAT scores of everyone in college. I had my kid's kindergarten teacher ask me 'what is that word, a-p-p-a-r-a-t-u-s, what does it mean?' just last week. Seems like the stupidest people with no other options are becoming teachers these days. You can only coast on social skills and warmth for so long, you need a high IQ to figure out how to solve your students' problems with learning and how to manage the classroom.
Kids need to be around high-IQ people to actually learn. Direct instruction is most efficient, but if you want your kids to learn by playing, you need them to play with smart people. That's not happening in public schools these days and isn't happening for the kids of unschooling influencers.
A lot of great information in your comment but saddened to see you end it with a major hit on teachers saying “the stupidest people with no other options” are becoming teachers. As a School Counselor for 18 years, the majority of the teachers I’ve worked are passionate about helping kids learn, recognize the way in which the system is messed up, and are pretty darn smart. Sorry your kids teacher didn’t know what an apparatus was…. Those of us who are dedicated to public education and trying to improve it each and every day do deserve some respect.
My kid's teachers so far have been ECE majors, a major with among the lowest SAT scores. I've spent some time in their classes, and it feels like obvious solutions to maintaining order doesnt occur to them. Older teachers all seem quite amazing. The younger ones, I find it hard to have faith in. Have met several socially before I had kids who say such mean things about the kids they teach. There's normal whining and then there's the whining where you just seem incompetent at your job and it was definitely the latter. Plus, they don't have their own kids so they dont understand child psychology.
The best thing I've found for my kid (getting to be 5yo) has been -- small ratios, teacher not that highly educated but has kids/grandkids, and runs the place like their family. This profile of person doesn't work well if they are in a big daycare with rules and curriculum - the rules and curriculum make them less warm and less likely to teach things in ways that work for them.
Teachers can have the best intentions, but if they are in a system that punishes agency, the smartest will leave. When that happens, order is maintained less, more kids fall through the cracks, the overall environment feels more oppressive to kids.
Fabulous comment. I love hearing about the education in other cultures! Have you read "Battle for the American Mind" by chance? That book touches on the classical form of education and also the history of education in the United States (especially late 1800's and after). I think we do owe monasteries, well Christianity really, our thanks for preserving the Bible and other knowledge during the Dark Ages. (Christianity really challenged the idea that only a select few deserved to be able to read & think & be fully human; it extended that courtesy to women and children and all men. And thus, all should be educated.) I think it really was the Industrial Revolution that screwed things up as for as the format that was/is used for education. But your idea of having adults who have never had children (monks & nuns) as instructors has a lot of merit as well; I did not understand or really like children until I had my own and actually had time to get to know them through all the stages of development. Children absolutely need guidance! I've learned a bit about the classical education style during my years as a home educator as well, and I really appreciated learning about the three different stages of learning. It is amazing to me the amount of information children can memorize at a young age! Yes, they will do it on their own or if it's a favorite subject, but teaching them in a fun and age appropriate way (using games even!) is very efficient.
Universal education isn't really a Christian idea. In the light of the protestant reformation, governments in many European countries stopped people from learning to read so they wouldn't go on pogroms after reading the Bible.
I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by the term "pogroms". Would you mind giving an example?
There was a lot of violence between Catholics and protestants in England in the 16th and 17th century. Thats what I was talking about. It was part of what made the Puritans come to America.
Ah, yes, I am familiar with that. Thank you for clarifying. Sadly, many people who claim Christianity are not true followers of Jesus, and many do not read the Bible for themselves. Partially why literacy and critical thinking skills (logic) are two key components of education! That's a large part of why I like the idea of classical education. Did you know there is an Association of Classical Christian Schools (in the USA)? Very exciting! (my children do not attend one, but I really like the idea)
My daughters attended such school!
Reading this article makes me even less hopeful that there’s a real solution for our school system.
The intention behind today’s educational model hasn’t changed. I love when you say that “education was understood as inculcation.” Because if that’s still the goal, then the system is thriving — a massive success. It’s doing exactly what it was designed to do until this day: serving the interests of those in charge.
And if that’s the case, there may be no real way to change it from within. It’s more powerful to inspire others to step outside of it. Let it collapse on its own. Meanwhile, we can build parallel alternatives — spaces that actually serve more and more people.
And maybe we need to stop calling it school altogether. That word is too loaded, too broken. We need a new name — one that honors a place where children can truly learn, where their natural passion for discovery is nurtured, where they grow alongside others of all ages and backgrounds.
A dream that truly inspires me!
Reading this makes me so, so sad.
The older I get, the more convinced I am of one basic human truth - that people are happiest when they are able to do things that they enjoy doing.
Throughout history, there are endless examples of both adults and children being forced to do things (I'm afraid organised religion has a lot to answer for - I'm sure Jesus would be horrified to see what has gone on in His name...).
We are not on this planet for very long. Studying family history over the past few years has made me realise how insignificant we all are. We shuffle on to this mortal coil, do a few things and shuffle off again. After a while, very few people remember us and these lives of ours have had little or no effect on many.
In my first week in teacher training college (aged 18, in 1974), I remember thinking, 'This is all WRONG.' I knew instinctively that children didn't like doing 'work', yet here I was learning how to make them do it. I had a major problem with the word 'work' (and still do).
I don't know that I was much of a 'player' as a child. But I do know that I loved being at home and that my whole life started a very big downward spiral from the time I went to school at 4 1/4. My grandparents had a smallholding and I grew up surrounded by chickens, greenhouses, growing things. My mum didn't work so I helped in the kitchen. I adored reading so just wanted to do that. I know how very happy I would have been to have stayed at home. I hated school, I hated other children, I was scared of the teachers, and I knew I wasn't any good at anything. At 18 I had no personality, few interests, nothing I was good at - and certainly no confidence. It's all why I feel so strongly about 'education', even though I'm long out of the school system (thank goodness).
It's SO time that people on both sides of the pond started to listen to people like you, Peter - and Naomi Fisher - and started to question accepted norms.
I thank God every day that I had parents who never put the SLIGHTEST bit of pressure on me (or my sister) to do anything, or be anything, or 'achieve' anything. They gave us the freedom throughout our lives to follow whatever direction we wanted, in the knowledge they were there to catch us if we fell - with the result that we both achieved WAY more than we ever thought possible. I found my tribe and my element and I know I've inspired many with my particular way of 'teaching'.
We just need to Let People Be. I think, when I grow up, I'd like to be a hunter-gatherer...
Mr. Gray, thank you for expressing a sentiment I truly believe should be taught to teachers while the children get busy with play, and allow them to share their discoveries.
I work at a school that had a mindset of inculcating students, and was let go because I created conflict with the pedagogy of the more taciturn senior teachers in my department. But in the meeting with the vice principal whose job it was to dismiss me, something interesting happened; I misunderstood the kind language he was using to fire me, and interpreted the dismissal as a 'wait-and-see' if there are enough classes to spread among the teachers. I suggested in the meantime that I create an after-school space where play is encouraged, and the students are able to come and go as they please.
The VP was surprised that I had recalled his hope of turning the memorial space in the school to something akin to the student lounges he saw at the local universities on a field trip. He loved that students had a place to relax, and engage more naturally with native English teachers, that didn't centre around lessons, rote memory, and tests. This coincided with my interest in David Eggers 826 Valencia operation that hired volunteers to tutor students after school. I just never thought a school would consider turning school space into a place where discovery could take on the form of play, and that Wonder could be the guiding force I encouraged students to trust.
8 years later, I'm an activity program coordinator at the school where my mission is to give students a chance to learn through play. It's part-time work, but it is liberating for both the students and I. Parents and graduates see the benefit in what has occurred. And the school is also grateful to have a safe space for fun to happen on school grounds. Never in a million years would I think such an idea would fly in Japan, but our Global Lounge has survived through the lean years of Covid-19, and new students who recalled seeing it on Open School tours come bounding in to play, laugh, and feel relieved to be something more than the cookie-cutter version that everyone else expects them to be.
Peter, thank you for walking us through the history of education. As a scientist and a parent, I’ve often felt that something is deeply off in how we think about education, but your writing gives it structure, clarity, and urgency.
I see it in my own daughter. At just three years old, she’s bursting with questions, play, and imagination. And yet I worry how much of that will survive once school tells her learning is “work” and play is a reward.
That’s why I recently started a publication, Playful Brains, to help other parents protect that spark, and to show that kids learn best when we stop trying to control every part of the process. In fact, my research showed that parents only have very limited time (4.3 yrs waking time and 1.3 yrs play time) with their kids throughout their whole life! (https://playfulbrains.substack.com/p/you-only-have-13-years-of-playtime)
Your work has been a huge inspiration.
The line about how school teaches kids the difference between work and play hit me hard. What if we raised a generation who never learned that false split?
Thank you again for giving us the history, the vision, and the courage to imagine something better.
Ricky Lanusse has an interesting post wrestling with the idea that our teach-to-the-test education system is systematically snuffing out minds that might otherwise have become world-changing geniuses:
https://medium.com/the-quantastic-journal/the-decline-of-genius-where-did-all-the-world-changers-go-774068b2d243
He asserts that many geniuses of yore had expensive private tutors - and he provocatively entertains the idea that AI may now be on the verge of being able to serve as an inexpensive tutor. It's an attractive hypothesis. If I picture myself simply being turned loose with Perplexity at age 10 I'm only able to imagine society would have gotten a lot more utility out of me. My most vivid memories of fourth grade are from weekend library trips and home experiments where I learned about barometric pressure, fungal spores, and nuclear reactors. Even if self-directed exploration didn't turn me into a more useful citizen, at least I would have been a much happier human being. I would never have tortured myself with learning to divide fractions or memorizing the dates of military battles, but I would certainly have discovered the life stories of some of the more obscure members of my personal pantheon of scientific, economic, and political heroes at a much younger age.
Do you share the sense that AI tutoring might provide a new way to finally start liberating kids from this unsinkable jail we've constructed for them?
I’ve worked as an educator for 12 years in public, private, and out of school programs. What I think is so important about this history is that even “good” schools are rooted in it and follow the indoctrination approach. “Good” schools are so primarily because they have fewer issues with obedience, and most parents are totally oblivious to that fact. If you are sending your kid to a traditional school of any kind, there is no way around that. As challenging as it is, the way to change this is to begin shifting what we place value on as parents and teachers - rather than obedience, kids following their own path and interests.
Such a lovely read - it traces how children’s roles have evolved over time. I especially loved how you pointed out how systems position “learning as child’s work.” When we step back and let them steer, learning (through play) unfolds so naturally. In fact, I wonder shouldn’t we see children as the true experts in learning and unlearn some of our own conditioned ideas about education?
Very good article. And I also read some of the insightful comments by other subscribers. But if we extend this thought process, then how would children be able to compete and survive in such a fast-growing world that requires knowledge of math/science and such? I am super fan of playful childhood, but a structured learning environment to expose them to nature, laws, morality, ... are basic whether learned at home or something called school.
An enlightening history, thank you for summarizing in this easy-to-digest format! Although I do think there are benefits to separating work and play (such as having time free from serving employers’ and/or public needs), it is particularly interesting how there once was no distinction, and all was simply the way of living.
The thing is, many people feel school didn’t even fully or adequately prepare them for work. I’m a millennial who was unschooled until my teens, and the most important things I feel were missing in high school were the following:
- Knowledge of how to practically apply what we learned in daily life. Most subjects were taught outside of any practical context, and although we could plug numbers into a formula and get the answer that matched the books, we couldn’t tell you how to use it. In second language classes we memorized vocabulary lists, but didn’t have the chance to use the language to communicate with another person. Consequently, a lot of what we learned was forgotten as soon as our one use for it—“remember the thing we’re supposed to say so we get a good grade and get a better job”—was gone.
- A sense that our work had meaning to and impact on other people. We handed in essays that usually were read by one person, given a pass/fail—frequently based on what that one person wanted us to say—and then thrown away with no discussion. Compare this to writing freely on the internet, where we can receive responses, understanding, connection, and enlightenment. There is reward to be found when we share our thoughts with people who may be receptive and understanding of what we say, and/or offer an alternate perspective. But when our words are valued based on how much they adhere to criteria established by just one person or group of people, it can feel like there’s no use in speaking at all.
- A sense that we were working together and each playing a role to achieve a common goal. Learning was done in solitary, and we each received an individual grade. The goal was not something tangible like, “Plant native flowers to create native habitat” or, “Distribute this information to people in a way that they understand”—it was, “Say what the teachers want to hear so you get a high number so people will see you as a valuable person.” It was about the individual, working in a vacuum, being assigned value in a vacuum. We didn’t see the impact of our work on others or that we were contributing something valuable to a greater whole.
I feel that I learn more from one day of shadowing someone on a job than I learned in the years I spent in public school. If it were easier to get access to this experience, I feel that many people would learn much faster from watching and following along with someone who is doing actual work than in all the years spent in school. If certain knowledge is needed for the work, then it makes sense to study it. But studying with no practical application is a recipe for forgetting.
I do believe in some amount of guidance and direction, as with basic math and literacy. But I often wish school could be replaced with some form of apprenticeships, where people are allowed to choose what interests them and shadow someone who does it for work, learning and training to do it themselves.
I don't believe that work should be seen as the ultimate goal or value of a person. However, most people do want to be meaningfully engaged and occupied in some way. And school is failing to show us how to find meaning in our work—often as well as how to do the work itself.
Love this