Understanding One Another
The Agoura Way
EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION
Educational reformers have been testing this idea for a century — Summerhill School in England since 1921, Sudbury Valley in Massachusetts since the 1960s. Presenting Rutger Bregman’s Humankind: A Hopeful History, Doug asks whether the real question isn’t whether children can handle freedom, but whether adults have the freedom to give it to them, citing psychologist Brian Sutton-Smith’s line: ‘The opposite of play is depression.’
A Note on the Original Text
Doug’s writings are presented as originally written. Spelling, punctuation, and grammatical irregularities have been retained to preserve his words and the integrity of the original record.
ORIGINAL WRITING
“The content in this post is based on the book Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman.
Agoura is part of a movement of schools that are charting an alternative course. People may scoff at the course at their approach to education, but there is plenty of evidence that it works: Summerhill School in Suffolk, England has been demonstrating since 1921 that kids can be entrusted with an abundance of freedom. And so has the Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts, where since the 1960s thousands of kids have spent their youth—and gone on to live fulfilling lives.
The question is not: can our kids handle the freedom?
The question is: whether we have the freedom to give it to them?
It’s an urgent question. ‘The opposite of play is not work, the psychologist Brian Sutton-Smith once said. ‘The opposite of play is depression.’ These days, the way many of us work—with no freedom, no play, no intrinsic motivation—is fueling an epidemic of depression. According to the World Health Organization, depression is now the number one global disease. Our biggest shortfall isn’t a bank account or budget sheet, but inside ourselves. It’s a shortage of what makes life meaningful. A shortage of play.”