Changing Our Minds

How children can take control of their own learning

By: Naomi Fisher

Narrated by: Deryn Edwards

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

Clear, concise, and direct.

This book was so easy to listen to and absorb the information. It’s the best book I’ve listened to so far on self directed education. I feel empowered after listening and I have a much clearer vision of what I’m aiming for.

Love love love this!

I actually went to order the book that is about to come out by Naomi Fisher about neurodiversity and I found it wasn’t out yet and that she’d written this one as well… so I got it and have devoured it! What an incredibly well written book. It’s one of my favorite unschooling books that I have read and I’ll be revisiting this when I feel disconnected with my focus or struggle to remember some of the why. I so appreciate the work she put into compiling the information so that it’s not just opinion but full of information that’s so helpful in understanding unschooling. I can’t wait to read her new book when it comes out at the end of the month.

Amazing!! Please read!!

I am so impressed by the research in this book. Anyone considering self directed learning for their child should read it.
Btw I have very rarely left a review in my 10 years listening to Audible.

Good ideas invalidated by factual inaccuracies

There’s a lot to be gleaned from this book that’s wonderful about children’s psychology and research, but the discussion of the medical model and treatments for ADHD is absolutely full of inaccuracies. For example, the author claims the only way to treat ADHD is medication and this is entirely a racket pushed by drug companies, whereas the medical recommendations for first line ADHD treatment are all lifestyle adjustments and skills. Interestingly when claiming the drugs aren’t evidence based, the focus briefly switches to depression, then back to adhd for everything else. Why? Because there is evidence of chemical differences in adhd brains? I’d love to love this book but the absolutely uninformed bull snot of this chapter has delegitimized the rest of the book for me. If this is misleading, what else is?