What do you think is important?

There’s a common misconception with self-directed or autonomous learning, that if people are not just permitted but facilitated in their desires that the outcome is inevitably selfish, indulgent and hedonistic. This is understandable but misguided.

To illustrate, my family had tickets to go pumpkin picking today. Halloween is a special celebration for us and we were all very much looking forward to it. However we’ve decided as a family to go on a protest march instead. Not because it’s what we’d prefer to do but because we think it’s more important.

We are social creatures. We are animals with the capacity for complex moral thinking. We are not asking young people what they want. We are asking them what they think is important.