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Changing Our Minds

How children can take control of their own learning

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Changing Our Minds

By: Naomi Fisher
Narrated by: Deryn Edwards
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About this listen

 Children are born full of curiosity, eager to participate in the world. They learn as they live, with enthusiasm and joy. Then we send them to school. We stop them from playing and actively exploring their interests, telling them it's more important to sit still and listen. The result is that for many children, their motivation to learn drops dramatically. The joy of the early years is replaced with apathy and anxiety.

This is not inevitable. We are socialised to believe that schooling is synonymous with education, but it's only one approach. Self-directed education puts the child back in control of their learning. This enables children, including those diagnosed with special educational needs, to flourish in their own time and on their own terms. It enables us to put wellbeing at the centre of education.

Changing Our Minds brings together research, theory and practice on learning. It includes interviews with influential thinkers in the field of self-directed education and examples from families alongside practical advice. This essential guide will give you an understanding of why self-directed education makes sense, how it works, and what to do to put it into action yourself.©2021 Naomi Fisher Childhood Education Developmental Psychology Education Parenting & Families Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Relationships Child Development Education Children Mind Control
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Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Traditional education didn’t work for me as a child but there were no other options back then. My neurodivergent son has experienced so many challenges with the school system in Australia that have resulted in trauma and complete disconnection by the end of year 6 last year. I have been looking into homeschooling and unschooling (self-directed learning) and this book has really helped me see the self-directed learning my son already engages in and the potential for us to flip the script and change his life through this approach. It has left me eager to learn more about child development and learning. So grateful for this book bringing out my intuitive sense of my son’s experience that I have been shoving down so that both him and I don’t get into trouble from the education department. This book has empowered me to begin making changes in my son’s “education”. Empowering. Thank you Naomi.

Empowering truly child led approach

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As new home schoolers we have herd alot about 'unschooling' or as Naomi terms 'self directed learning.' This book covers the topic in great detail and answers many questions i had. However if you have a strong belief in schooling and mandatory structured learning, beware, it might change your mind!

very thought provoking

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Loved this book, it resonated deeply with me and articulated concepts and thoughts id had swirling around in my head.

Thought provoking

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I'm a parent who has been unschooling for many years now. I was keen to listen to this book after reading Naomi's interesting tweets on Twitter. When I began listening I felt buoyed by her (initial thoughts) seemingly refreshing and open minded approach to education. But then I came across a few anecdotes that upset me. One in particular discussing the forcing of children who were physically disabled being forced to learn to put on their socks and shoes. Naomi was told by a woman that she was 'stealing' their future for helping them. And instead of challenging the woman Naomi just accepted that's what you do to help children. I found on quite a few occasions the lack of her own need to change her thinking. I won't throw the whole book out she has given some great reassurance that unschooling is a great path to take. I just wish that in hindsight she added a chapter where she admitted her shortcomings. We all have them. I'm not perfect in the slightest. It would have been lovely to hear her say, "I didn't like this approach" or "I just went a long with this because I was afraid to speak up". We've all been there. Sadly it just made me feel she accepted the adults reasoning. Ableism is rife in our society and not enough is being done to say, "what is it about our obsession with individualism". So I've given only half stars. Do listen if you're interested many won't agree with me. And that's of course up to you. I'd just take what you need and leave the rest.

A good start

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