Articles by Carol Black | Films For Action

On the Wildness of Children: The Revolution Will Not Take Place In The Classroom

Carol Black · “In Wildness is the preservation of the World.” Thoreau says it in “Walking,” and Jack Turner, in his exquisite collection of essays, The Abstract Wild, questions how many of us have any idea what it means. P

This 2-Part Primer Will Help You Think Like an Unschooler

Carol Black & Neal Marlens · Many of us have difficulty explaining the concept of unschooling, life learning, or self-directed learning to those who are unfamiliar with it. In an attempt to help unschoolers communicate their way of looking at things to the wider...

The Future of Big-Box Schooling

Carol Black · “I think the way western education has grown over the last few centuries, especially with the rise of industrialization, was basically not to create human beings fully equipped to deal with life and all its problems, independent...

A Thousand Rivers: What the Modern World has Forgotten about Children and Learning

Carol Black · The following statement somehow showed up on my Twitter feed the other day: “Spontaneous reading happens for a few kids. The vast majority need (and all can benefit from) explicit instruction in phonics.” This 127-character edict...

Occupy Your Brain: On Power, Knowledge, and the Re-Occupation of Common Sense

Carol Black · One of the most profound changes that occurs when modern schooling is introduced into traditional societies around the world is a radical shift in the locus of power and control over learning from children, families, and communities to...