Unsurprisingly, the headline's "new" teaching method isn't particularly new (as the timeline sidebar in the article itself makes somewhat apparent). For example

Unsurprisingly, the headline's "new" teaching method isn't particularly new (as the timeline sidebar in the article itself makes somewhat apparent). For example, the Sudbury Valley School [1] has been around since 1968 and is even more "radical". No grades, no curriculum, no classes, no separation by age. The governance of the school is democratic, with all decisions -- including those regarding budget and staff -- decided by a body called the School Meeting which is composed of the staff and the students together, with one vote per person. The Sudbury School of Atlanta has an interesting blog post [2] describing how the students can naturally pick up basic skills through participating in the management of the school, in this case by choosing and acquiring a school pet. This Wired article is more about the undirected aspect, but the compelling thing to me about adding the democratic element (the oldest running example is the Summerhill School [3], established in 1921) is that the decisions being made affect the student, so the student has a motive to participate and learns as a by-product. Thus there's a hope that children in general could benefit, not only those children who are particularly "self-directed learners". Additionally, the things they're learning (reading, writing and arithmetic, but also teamwork, negotiation and leadership) are directly beneficial in society -- because the school itself is a microcosm of society. It may not be a model that produces "geniuses", but it does seem like a good model for producing adults/citizens. (I have no personal experience with alternative schooling.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_Valley_School https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_Valley_School [2] http://sudburyschoolofatlanta.blogspot.com/2012/11/sudbury-assignment-learn-math-reading.html http://sudburyschoolofatlanta.blogspot.com/2012/11/sudbury-a... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerhill_School https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerhill_School