Without Boundaries:
Consent-based non-coercive parenting and autonomous learning

Jan Fortune-Wood

Review by Sue Cvach: This book is an effective primer of applied TCS philosophy. While dismantling the myth of conventional parenting theory about setting boundaries for children, Without Boundaries offers the alternative moral and educational paradigm found in the TCS philosophy. From an initial examination of the underpinnings of TCS non-coercive parenting and education theory, Fortune-Wood explores the paradigm shift from conventional to TCS theory, then moves on to the practical process of living family life in a way that supports individual autonomy and learning. Scenarios are presented to demonstrate finding non-coercive solutions within families, with a comparison of conventional parenting and consent-based parenting solutions, complete with a convenient reference summary chart. TCS old-timers are wishing this book had been around when they first discovered TCS!

Doing it Their Way: Home-based Education and Autonomous Learning

Jan Fortune-Wood

A concise and readable guide to the philosophy and practicalities of ‘autonomous learning’ for children. Various approaches are discussed and criticised, and TCS decidedly comes off best. The book also contains helpful information about the favourable state of the law (in the UK) pertaining to home education and autonomous education. Highly recommended.

The Enquirer

William Godwin

The Enquirer is one of those books that everyone should read but few do, not because it isn't interesting, but simply because few book shops sell it. For a taste of what's in store for you if you read this book, see our Quotations page. The sections on education in The Enquirer, written in 1793, are probably the closest thing to TCS theory during the whole two centuries before TCS itself came along. The other sections, though they are seriously wrong about some issues (especially economics, which Godwin didn't understand at all), are nevertheless fascinating for the breadth, clarity and integrity of Godwin's thinking.

The Anarchist Writings of William Godwin

Peter H. Marshall

It's not just the anarchist writings, but an excellent short introduction, through carefully chosen exerpts, to Godwin's philosophy as a whole, including his philosophy of education.

The Political and Philosophical Writings of William Godwin (Pickering Masters)

Mark Philp

This massive collection in seven volumes contains so many astonishing gems of Godwinian insight that it is easily worth the small fortune that it costs. If you have a small fortune, you will not regret buying this book.

Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its Influence on Modern Morals and Happiness (Penguin Classics)

William Godwin

Another very important book. This one includes a brilliant refutation of the argument that Child A and Child B were both brought up by the same parents in the same way, yet are very different, therefore it follows that differences between children are inborn. Ignore the economics sections. For a few quotes from this book, see our Quotations page.

Political Justice (1793)

William Godwin

Another edition of the above.

Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge

Karl R. Popper

“Conjectures and refutations” is the three-word summary of Popper's theory of how scientific knowledge grows. It is also our theory of how all knowledge, even existing knowledge, is acquired by human minds. So although Popper makes very little reference to children or education, the logic of all his arguments is the same as that of TCS educational theory, and most of the arguments he opposes have direct counterparts in conventional educational theories. The Introduction is a particularly clear statement of some vital ideas.

The Open Society and Its Enemies: Volume 1: The Spell of Plato

Karl R. Popper

The classic work of modern liberal political philosophy. It is a study of the attributes that political institutions must have if they are to be capable of correcting (rather than entrenching) errors and thus of avoiding tyranny. A family is not a political system, and the actual institutions (e.g. human rights and democratic elections) that are appropriate in the political case are either inadequate or actually anti-rational within a family. Nevertheless Popper's overall approach, and his criterion for judging institutions, is exactly the TCS approach to judging the institutions of a family.

The Open Society and Its Enemies: Volume 2: The High Tide of Prophecy: Hegel, Marx and the Aftermath

Karl R. Popper

See above.

Popper: a Modern Master

Bryan Magee

An excellent short introduction to Popper's philosophy. This is the most accessible introduction to the work of Karl Popper available.

Unended Quest

Karl Popper

Popper's “intellectual autobiography”. Very engaging, and one of the few places where Popper allowed himself to comment directly on education. See our Quotations page for examples.

The Myth of the Framework

Karl Popper, M.A. Notturno

An underrated book, written in Popper's old age, in which he attacks what he calls “The Myth of the Framework”, i.e. the idea that two people can reach agreement only if they already accept the same “framework” (or “paradigm”), and therefore that changing from one framework to another cannot be a rational (or, in practice, non-violent) process. This myth appears in many guises in almost every bad educational theory, and it is a treat to see Popper demolishing it so explicitly and comprehensively.

Objective Knowledge

Karl R. Popper

A series of essays explaining the main features of Popper's theory of knowledge. Some passages, for instance the one attacking the “bucket theory of the mind” (the theory that knowledge is a sort of substance that can flow from one person to another) are directly about educational theory.

How Children Fail

John Holt

Be sure you are getting the second edition, not the first edition. Well worth reading for insight into what a complete waste of time and destroyer of real learning forced schooling is. Anyone who is even remotely tempted by current popular explanations of how children fail (bad genes, insufficient discipline etc.) must read this book so that they can at least understand what educational coercion feels like to the child.

Escape from Childhood

John Holt

A bold exploration and defence of the proposition that children and adults should have equal legal rights. Excellent, humane and perceptive; possibly his best book.

David Deutsch

Anyone interested in understanding TCS on anything other than the most superficial level absolutely must read this book. It contains important explanations of the nature of rationality, the growth of knowledge, criticism, problems and solutions, memes – not to mention the implications of quantum theory. If you have ever puzzled over the vital TCS idea that all problems are solvable in principle, this book will help you understand our contention that that is a law of nature. Deutsch's explanation of the nature of knowledge on the grandest scale may help you see the importance of solving problems (i.e., seeking consent-based solutions) rather than, for instance, imposing your will on others. This book will blow your mind. It is a whole new world view, of which TCS is a part. But the best thing about it, as far as I am concerned, is its sheer life-affirming, pro-human, positive take on life, the universe and everything. If you are depressed about the state of the world, forget drugs, read this book. It even cured me of my housework-hating problem. (And in addition, if you look up “education” in the index, you will find lots of hidden asides referring to non-coercive education theory...)

For more information, or to buy a signed copy of the first edition, first impression of this book directly from TCS, click here.

The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct

Thomas Szasz

The very idea of mental illness, Szasz powerfully argues, is a bankrupt metaphor whose basic function is to justify tyranny. As a philosophical idea, it has no merit and has undermined the basis of morality as well as perverting what passes for the prevailing philosophy of the human mind. For “mental illness”, you can substitute not only special cases like “attention deficit disorder” which directly justify the coercion of children, but also every other justification for such coercion based on alleged deficits in children's ability to think.

Ceremonial Chemistry: The Ritual Persecution of Drugs, Addicts, and Pushers

Thomas Szasz

At one level this book is a perceptive and wryly humorous analysis of the reasons why people feel so strongly about what substances they and other people eat, drink and otherwise put into their bodies. At a deeper level it explores Szasz's theory of “ceremony”, and of rival ceremonies, which is very close to Dawkins' concept of a “meme” and competing memes, except that Szasz investigates the details of various ceremonies with the full power of his profound and utterly humane insight into the human condition.

For Your Own Good

Alice Miller

This won't get you very far along the TCS road, because the author concentrates most of her energy upon the issue of violence, whereas in fact, most parental coercion of children is not overtly violent at all, and indeed, is all the more insidious for that reason. But it is an excellent book to give a spanker who is open to change. Take the Freudian nonsense with a shovel of salt though.

P E T : Parent Effectiveness Training

Thomas Gordon

This is the least bad of the hundreds or thousands of parenting-manual-type I have read. If you are absolutely desperate to read a parenting manual, read this one. If you are interested in TCS, avoid like the plague the Faber/Mazlish books, which advocate hideous coercion dressed up as sweetness and light. PET is bad, but it is the best of the available bad bunch because it does at least make an attempt to suggest that there might be a better way than either parent OR child winning and the other losing. It fails to deliver much in the way of real solutions to problems because the author retains some fixed “givens” such as the idea that children have to go to school or do homework and the like. A TCS approach, by contrast, would not exclude from the outset the idea that a real solution might involve the child not going to school in the first place, or the parent doing the child's homework for her, etc.

P.E.T. in Action

Thomas Gordon, Judith Gordon Sands

See the above review.

Emile

Jean Jacques Rousseau, P.D. Jimack (Editor)

Brilliant and wilfully stupid, almost uniquely compassionate (for his day) yet with an appallingly cruel and nasty disposition, meticulous and whimsical, rational and irrational, painfully honest and callously manipulative, Rousseau is the greatest loose cannon in the liberal tradition. Emile is his classic work on educational theory and practice. In it you will find the beginnings of almost every strand of subsequent liberal educational thinking, both good and bad. Strands of Rousseau lead directly to A.S. Neill, Dr Spock, John Holt and TCS, as well as to all the myriad fashionable variants of “how to make your children obey without them ever realising” or “how to justify tyranny in the name of freedom”. If only history had taken the Godwinian path instead of the Rousseauian! Emile is of enormous historical interest, and contains much that is good and true about children and education, but anyone who actually tries to use it as a model for how to interact with children will not only do a lot of harm, but will very soon either give up or go mad.