There is a wealth of information about Self-Directed Education available online. Listed on this resource page are a few references to get you started and to offer support through the paradigm shift from traditional education models to the Self-Directed Education framework.

Short Reads

• “A Thousand Rivers,” Carol Black

• “Unschooling as Social Change,” Zakiyya Ismail

• “On the Wildness of Children,” Carol Black

• “The Unschooled Life: Astra Taylor’s Story,” Astra Taylor

• “Developmental Psychology’s Marriage to the School System: The focus on children in school distorts our understanding of childhood,” Peter Gray

• “Children’s Risk of Suicide Increases on School Days,” Tyler Black

• “The Side Effects of School: A Crisis in Mental Health Can’t Be Solved Through Therapy,” Naomi Fisher

• “Learning. It’s Not About Education,” Laura Grace Weldon

• “Education is Over…,” by William Rankin

• “why we need to change schools (right now),” Chris McNutt

• “Teenagers need more free time, less “education.” We all do.,” Charles Tsai

• “Is Self-Directed Education Producing Model Workers For An Innovation-Based Economy?,” Ben Draper

• “The Motivation Paradox,” Jessica Koehler

Videos

Books

• Exploring the Realm of Self-Directed Education Akilah S. Richards and Laura Kriegel from the Alliance for Self-Directed Education explain how unschooling, free/democratic schools, learning centers, co-ops and more relate.

• What Is Self-Directed Education? An introductory illustration from Peter Gray and the Alliance for Self-Directed Education

• Hackschooling Makes Me Happy A 13 year old homeschooler, Logan LaPlante, describes how he hacks his own education to create the life he wants for himself.

• What If We Trusted You? A great talk by Jerry Michalski about how traditional schools are set up around the belief that children do not want to learn.

• Do Schools Kill Creativity? Famous talk from Ken Robinson.

Getting started:

1. Free to Learn, Peter Gray

2. Hunt, Gather, Parent, Michaeleen Doucleff

3. Raising Free People, Akilah S. Richards

Going deeper:

1. Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown

2. The Book of Learning and Forgetting, Frank Smith

3. Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks

4. Trust Kids!, carla bergman

5. Untigering, Iris Chen

Other reads:

1. Changing Our Minds, Naomi Fischer

2. Drive, Daniel Pink

3. Excellent Sheep, William Deresiewicz

4. Overschooled but Undereducated, John Abbott

5. Raising Good Humans by Hunter Clarke-Fields

6. How Children Learn; How Children Fail; and Teach Your Own, John Holt

7. Neuroqueer Heresies by Nick Walker

8. The End of Average, Todd Rose

9. The Gardener and the Carpenter, Alison Gopnik

10. The Self-Driven Child, William Stixrud PhD, Ned Johnson

11. Troublemakers, Carla Shalaby

12. Unconditional Parenting, Alfie Kohn

13. Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined, Scott Barry Kaufman

14. When You Wonder, You’re Learning, Gregg Behr and Ryan Rydzewski