Prologue -- What have we done to childhood? -- The play-filled lives of hunter-gatherer children -- Why schools are what they are : a brief history of education -- Seven sins of our system of forced education -- Lessons from sudbury valley : mother nature can prevail in modern times -- The human educative instincts -- The playful state of mind -- The role of play in social and emotional development -- Free age mixing : a key ingredient for children's capacity for self-education -- Trustful parenting in our modern world -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.