There are many, many books on education and you’ll find most of the great ones listed on other sites (such as the ones on our links page) but there’s a few in particular we’d like to call attention to, as powerful introductions to the systemic problem of compulsory schooling and the universal benefits of self-directed learning.
John Holt’s classic is even more powerful now, as his observations of children in the 1950s obliterate the illusion that the inherent harm of the school system is a recent development. Holt brilliantly and sensitively captures, with insightful detail, the defense mechanisms his students instinctively create to survive his classroom.
John Taylor Gatto’s powerful call to arms includes his infamous Six Lesson Curriculum as well as several other essays on the interdependence of schools and our socio-economic status quo.
How did schooling start? Most people assume it’s just always been this way.
Gatto’s important exploration of where our globally implemented education system began shows that it is doing exactly what it was designed to do. Namely, eliminate individualism and true democracy.
Daniel Greenberg’s affectionate memoir of the beginnings of The Sudbury Valley School, considered by many to be the first democratic school. What Sudbury had the imagination and perseverance to create in 1968 has been copied around the world, lighting the way toward a new future for us all.
This Palme D’Or-winner is an amazing film starring Francois Begaudeau as himself, based on his own book about his experiences as a teacher over the course of a year in a typical French public school. The film manages to allow real life to run loose while keeping tight reign on a structure that perfectly exposes the futility both teacher and students feel at their predicament.
BOOKS
MOVIES
A new documentary about the pressures faced by American schoolchildren and their teachers in our achievement obsessed public and private education system and culture. This film the heartbreaking stories of young people across the country who have been pushed to the brink, educators who are burned out and worried students aren’t developing the skills they need, and parents who are trying to do what’s best for their kids.