Education

Rethinking Schools and Schooling

• School is Bad for Children, by John Holt, The Natural Child Project
• Why Schools Don’t Educate, by John Taylor Gatto
• Stop Stealing Dreams (What is School For?), by Seth Godin
• Dear Public School: It’s Not Me, It’s You., by Kelly Meier
• School is still ruining your chances to learn, by Seth Godin
• Why Our Coercive System of Schooling Should Topple, by Peter Gray, The Natural Child Project
• The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher, by John Taylor Gatto
• The Right to Control One’s Learning, by John Holt, The Natural Child Project
• Respectful Learning: The Education Our Children Deserve, by Sara, Happiness is Here
• Re-Building the K-12 Operating System, by Grant Lichtman
• Progressive Education: Why It’s Hard to Beat, But Also Hard to Find, by Alfie Kohn
• A venture capitalist searches for the purpose of school. Here’s what he found., by Ted Dintersmith
• Beyond Meaningless Curriculum: An Email from a Student, by Marc Prensky
• I Can’t Answer These Texas Standardized Test Questions About My Own Poems, by Sara Holbrook
• Confusing Goals and Processes – A Summer Reflection on Lawns and Education, by Susan Blum
• My Struggle With “Education”, by Scott Noelle
• Academic predictors of adult maturity and competence, by Douglas H. Heath
• A Brief History of Education, by Peter Gray
• Summer Slide? There’s No Such Thing, by Kerry McDonald
• Inverse Relationship Between GPA and Innovative Orientation, by Peter Gray
• Teaching Strategies That Work! (Just Don’t Ask “Work to Do What?”), by Alfie Kohn

For Teachers

• A Dozen Essential Guidelines for Educators, by Alfie Kohn
• To High School English Teachers (and All Teachers), by P.L. Thomas
• What’s the Real Purpose of Classroom Management?, by Alfie Kohn

About Teaching In General

• The Baby Is Not “Getting Ready”, by John Holt, The Natural Child Project
• Another Example of Less Teaching Leading to More Learning, by Peter Gray
• The Joy and Sorrow of Rereading Holt’s “How Children Learn”, by Peter Gray

Problems with Grading

• Skills, Big Ideas, and Getting Grades Out of the Way, by Patrick Henry Winston

Teaching Reading

• The Reading Wars: Why Natural Learning Fails in Classrooms, by Peter Gray
• How to Create Nonreaders: Reflections on Motivation, Learning, and Sharing Power, by Alfie Kohn
• At a Loss for Words: How a Flawed Idea is Teaching Millions of Kids to be Poor Readers, by Emily Hanford
• Children Teach Themselves to Read, by Peter Gray
• Teaching Literacy, Not Literacy Skills, by P.L. Thomas
• The Things Schools Ruin: Poetry Edition, by P.L. Thomas

Teaching Math

• Why Do Americans Stink at Math?, by Elizabeth Green
• And ‘Rithmetic, by Daniel Greenberg
• Kids Learn Math Easily When They Control Their Own Learning, by Peter Gray
• Math Instruction versus Natural Math: Benezet’s Example, by Laura Grace Weldon
• What Works Better than Traditional Math Instruction: Why the Basics Just Don’t Add Up, by Alfie Kohn
• The Benefits of Natural Math, by Laura Grace Weldon
• Should we stop making kids memorize times tables?, by Jill Barshay
• Fluency Without Fear: Research Evidence on the Best Ways to Learn Math Facts, by Jo Boaler
• Learn math without fear, Stanford expert says, by Clifton B. Parker
• A Mathematician’s Lament, by Paul Lockhart
• Changing the Way we Teach Math – an Interview with Paul Lockhart of “A Mathematician’s Lament”, by Tracy Stevens
• When Less Is More: The Case for Teaching Less Math in School, by Peter Gray
• “How old is the shepherd?” — The problem that shook school mathematics, by Junaid Mubeen
• Math in the Real World: Things That Don’t Look Like Math But Really Are, by Rebecca McClure
• Most Math Problems Do Not Have a Unique Right Answer, by Keith Devlin
• Natural Math: 100+ Activities & Resources, by Laura Grace Weldon
• 5-Year-Olds Can Learn Calculus, by Luba Vangelova

Problems with Early Teaching

• How Early Academic Training Retards Intellectual Development, by Peter Gray
• Early Academic Training Produces Long-Term Harm, by Peter Gray
• Much Too Early, by David Elkind
• Head Start’s Value Lies in Care, Not Academic Training, by Peter Gray

Alternatives to Traditional Schools

• How do Unschoolers Turn Out?, by Luba Vangelova
• Harnessing Children’s Natural Ways of Learning, by Luba Vangelova
• The Six Optimizing Conditions: Self-Directed Education works best when the following conditions are present…, by The Alliance for Self-Directed Learning
• Everyone’s A Student, Everyone’s A Teacher, by Rachel Munzig
• School Is War, Prison, Factory, Machine, Business, Game, Life….And Other Metaphors: recommending Permaculture, by Susan Blum
• The Natural Environment for Children’s Self-Education, by Peter Gray

Rethinking the “Word Gap”

• Is the 30 Million Word Gap a stat we should be using?, by Lisa Nowlain
• Selling the Language Gap, by Susan D. Blum and Kathleen C. Riley
• ‘The Language Gap’ — Liberal Guilt Creates Another Not-So-Magic Bullet, by Susan D. Blum
• Invited Forum: Bridging the “Language Gap”, many authors through the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology
• Back-and-forth exchanges boost children’s brain response to language, by Anne Trafton
• Quality of Words, Not Quantity, Is Crucial to Language Skills, Study Finds, by Douglas Quenqua, The New York Times
• Stop blaming poor parents for their children’s vocabulary, by Paul Thomas
• Making Millions off of the 30-Million-Word Gap, by Educational Linguist
• Ten Best Ways To Encourage Toddlers To Talk, by Janet Lansbury
• Debunking the “language gap”, by Eric J. Johnson
• The “Word Gap”: A Reader, by P.L. Thomas
• This Is Not My Opinion, by P.L. Thomas

Social Class & Race Issues

• What These Children Are Like, by Ralph Ellison
• Don’t Send Your Kid to the Ivy League: The nation’s top colleges are turning our kids into zombies, by William Deresiewicz
• The Ivy League, Mental Illness, and the Meaning of Life: William Deresiewicz explains how an elite education can lead to a cycle of grandiosity and depression, by Lauren Cassani Davis
• The Problem With Rich Kids, by Suniya S. Luthar Ph.D
• Sometimes ‘poor little rich kids’ really are poor little rich kids, by Suniya S. and Luthar Barry

Technology in Schools

• Beyond Ed-Tech: Making and Buying “Dedicated Educational Technology is a Needless Waste of Our Resources, Marc Prensky

Narcissism in Education

• When Narcissus Teaches: Teaching, Mentoring and the Danger of Narcissism, by Carol Lakey Hess
• Narcissistic Teaching (and how to change it), by Ian Byrd
• Observations of Narcissist Educators, by Dr. Gary Ackerman

Psychology, Trauma & Abuse

Diagnosing Children

• DSM-5 Diagnoses in Kids Should Always Be Written in Pencil, by Allan J. Frances

Child Abuse

• Spanking is counterproductive and dangerous, by Alice Miller
• Every Smack is a Humiliation – A Manifesto, by Alice Mille
• “It is Never Right to Hit a Child”: Interview by Noreen Taylor
• Alice Miller Interview: The Roots of Violence, by Alice Mille
• Adolf Hitler: How Could a Monster Succeed in Blinding a Nation?, by Alice Miller
• Preface to From Rage to Courage, by Alice Miller
• How Adults Can Survive A Childhood of Violence and Untruth, by Michael Pastore
• The Wellsprings of Horror in the Cradle, by Alice Miller
• Mary and Joseph – Parents to Emulate, by Alice Miller
  
• Brief Thoughts on Reading the Works of Alice Miller, by Lucien X. Lombardo
• How to Intervene:The Safety of Kids is Everybody’s Business, by Irene van der Zande 
• There is no debate about hitting children – it’s just wrong, by Paul Thomas
• Spare the Rod, Respect the Child: Abuse Is Not Discipline, by P. L. Thomas

Childhood Trauma

• Developmental Trauma Disorder: A new, rational diagnosis for children with complex trauma histories, by Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD
• Developmental trauma disorder: the effects of child abuse and neglect
  by Maureen V. Kilrain, MS, PA-C

Autism & Abuse

• Autism and Behaviorism: New Research Adds to an Already Compelling Case Against ABA, by Alfie Kohn
• Autism as an Infantile Post-trauma Stress Disorder: A Hypothesis, by Yi C and Zhou T
• Autism and Behaviorism: New Research Adds to an Already Compelling Case Against ABA, by Alfie Kohn
• If Not ABA, Then What?, by Maxfield Sparrow
• Why I Left ABA, by Steph from Socially Anxious Advocate
• I Abused Children for a Living, by birdmadgrrl
• When Disabled Students Are Abused, by Amy Sequenzia
• My Thoughts on ABA, by Amy Sequenzia

Narcissism & Narcissistic Abuse

• Healing from Identity Loss After Narcissistic Abuse, by Kim Saeed, Kim Saeed
• So My Mom’s A Narcissist… Why Does It Hurt So Much?, by Diana Calvo
• Do You Think You Have A Narcissistic Parent? Mother Or Father?, Tracy A Malone
• 8 Red Flags That You’re Dealing with a Narcissistic Mother, by Kim Saeed, Kim Saeed
• What (really) is narcissism? The myth of the over-valued child, by Brad Reedy

Boundaries

• The Power of Personal Boundaries, by Darlene Lancer
• When Boundaries Seem Impossible, by Elisabeth Corey, Beating Trauma
• It’s Time to Fail the Tests, by Elisabeth Corey, Beating Trauma
• Human Bill of Rights: Guidelines for Fairness and Intimacy, by Pete Walker, Pete Walker
• You Are Allowed to Have Boundaries with Family, by Natalie from Baggage Reclaim

Relationships & Communication

• Ten Tip Series: The Intimacy Barrier, by Bruce D. Perry
• Listening to People, by Ralph G. Nichols and Leonard A. Stevens, Harvard Business Review
• 10 Steps To Effective Listening, by Dianne Schilling, Forbes
• Effective Listening
• 17 Tips To ACTUALLY Listen When Someone Else Is Talking, by Carolyn Kylstra
• Supporting Teachers of Color, by Jason Buell
• The Generational Effects of Codependency, by Sharon Martin

Therapy & Healing

• How to Choose a Counselor, by John Breeding, PhD
• How to Discover the Real Self, by Brad Reedy
• “Looking for a Therapist Who Looks for You”, by Brad Reedy
• My Views on Psychiatry and “Mental Illness”, by John Breeding, PhD
• What is the Change Triangle?, by Hillary Jacobs Hendel

Other

• The Double Bind Theory: Still Crazy-Making After All These Years, by Paul Gibney
• Epistemic Vices in Organizations: Knowledge, Truth, and Unethical Conduct, by Christopher Baird & Thomas S. Calvard, Journal of Business Ethics

• How your nervous system sabotages your ability to relate An interview with Stephen Porges about his polyvagal theory, by Ravi Dykema
• The Biopsychiatric Model of “Mental Illness”: A Critical Bibliography, Loren R. Mosher M.D.
• Antidepressants Work, But Only For Really Depressed People, by Allan J. Frances M.D.

Autism

• The Powerful Effect of Respectful Parenting for Children With Special Needs (Case Studies from Sandra Hallman), by Janet Lansbury
• What is Autism?, by Nick Walker
• Autism Doesn’t Have to be Viewed as a Disability or Disorder, Nikki Stevenson
• Autism and the Pathology Paradigm, by Nick Walker
• Throw Away the Master’s Tools: Liberating Ourselves from the Pathology Paradigm, by Nick Walker
• Defining Neurodivergent, by Alex Forshaw
• Our Autistic Family’s Approach to Therapy, by Alice Thatcher
• Parents, Are You Listening To Your Child?, by Amy Sequenzia
• Things I Wish I’d Known in Kindergarten, by Nick Walker
• One super important way to forge connections with autistic people in your life, by Briannon Lee
• An Insider’s View of ‘Special Interests’, by Leia Solo
• Rules to Live By, by Cynthia Kim
• Autism, Inflexibility and Diversity, by Judy Endow
• We Are Not In Our Own World, by Judy Endow
• Guiding Principles for a Course on Autism, by Nick Walker
• Amy Sequenzia: Non-Speaking Autistic Speaking, by Sydney Parker

Sensory Processing Disorders

• Recognizing Sensory Processing Differences (SPD): Guest Post, by Jonathan Evans
• Tactile Defensiveness, by Cynthia Kim
• Sensory Diet, by Cynthia Kim
• The Difference Between a Sensory Sensitivity and Disliking Something, by Cynthia Kim
• Sensory Sensitivities: Understanding Triggers, by Cynthia Kim
• Autism and A Changing Sensory System, by Judy Endow
• Changing Seasons and Sensory Sensitivities, by Cynthia Kim
• Interoception: How Do I Feel?, by Cynthia Kim

Other

• Post-traumatic stress disorder may mimic autism in some children, by Katherine Stavropoulos
• Differential Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: Two Clinical Cases, by Katherine Kuhl-Meltzoff Stavropoulos, Yasamine Bolourian andJ an Blacher

ADHD

• Suffer The Restless Chidren, by Alfie Kohn, The Atlantic
• Addendum to “Suffer the Restless Children”, by Alfie Kohn
• ADHD Is Overdiagnosed, Here’s Proof, by Allan J. Frances M.D
• Keith Connors, Father of ADHD, Regrets Its Current Misuse, by Allan J. Frances M.D
• ADHD, Creativity, and the Concept of Group Intelligence, by Peter Gray
• Doctor: ADHD Does Not Exist, by Dr. Richard Saul
• Why I Believe Attention Deficit Disorder is a Myth, by Thomas Armstrong
• Appeal To All Adults (Who Are Concerned For The Well-Being Of Our Children), by John Breeding, PhD
• The Colt of a Booklet, by John Breeding, Ph.D.

Environment & Sustainability

Approaches to Climate Change

• How peer pressure can help stop climate change, by Robert Frank
• Extinction and the Revolution of Love, Charles Eisenstein
• Every Act a Ceremony, by Charles Eisenstein
• Can Responsible Grazing Make Beef Climate-Neutral?

Green Building

• If You Can’t Beat the Heat Outside, Turn Off the AC, by Patrick Allen
• Too Much Time in Air-Conditioning Is Warping Your Ability to Handle Heat, by Cari Romm