Tipping Points is delighted to publish the following excerpt from long time contributor Naomi Fisher. My son has just switched to home education after a tough time at school, where he felt misunderstood.

Naomi Fisher's book, Changing Our Minds, shows us why and how we can use other ways of living, learning and sharing knowledge with children besides the usual method: Sit down.Even when, at age fourteen, they do get to make some decisions, it’s usually between which classroom they sit in and what information they will be tested on, rather than anything more significant.

Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. Profiteroles came along the belt, I had to grab two, put them on the spikes, and – ‘thunk’ – the machine filled them with cream. As well as a grounding in theory, the book provides a roadmap to help self-directed learning become a reality for families. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.Sometimes, there is a requirement to just do the job at hand in the same way as everyone else and to very precise requirements. Much like self-directed learning, it is somehow effortless yet deeply enriching and full of 'aha' moments.

Whether you are an educator or a parent, this book highlights not only the damage we are doing to children in the name of educating them, but also how things can be done differently. It is going to be about the psychology of self-directed education, it couldn’t be much more niche than that. An essential book for anyone with children who reject the confines of the school system, which will leave you exhilarated about the possibilities before you ― Heidi Steel, former teacher turned unschooling parent, mentor and coach for unschooling families, www. I read the books which claimed that the problem in education today is that we don’t teach children enough facts, and the books which argue that children just need to be kept under control better. It is written for the growing number of parents who feel that 'school' is doing their children more harm than good.If Dave didn’t think I was working fast enough, he would come and turn up the machine: thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk-squirt.

I never thought I’d be considering unschooling, but 13yo has shown me over the years that traditional schooling (including traditional homeschooling) will never work for him. Clear and logical points based on scientific evidence and psychological understanding that makes complete sense to me both rationally and intuitively. I thought that alternative education wasn’t something I’d ever consider for my child but it turns out that I really didn’t know what this meant until I listened to this book.In the process, Dr Fisher asks us to reconsider our fundamental assumptions and views about how learning takes place, advocating for a more student-centred and strengths-based approach to education.