Chapter One
The Case for Self Directed Learning

NOTHING is so natural to us as learning and accomplishment. We hunger for it from our first breath. We enter school already skilled in it and eager for more. We pursue it, often with passion, for the rest of our lives. The need to survive, become competent, find intimacy, and sustain self esteem presses us forward on all life fronts. We search for a role and work of significance; for companionship, partner, and family; for understanding each other and ourselves; for mastery over something and for fulfillment. Our species is irrepressibly curious and restless; we question everything and seek answers; we see a need or possibility and press forward to see if we can make it real. The drive to learn can be suppressed we can be deprived, beaten, and drugged but these are only frictions to the unstoppable learning momentum that has propelled our species from its prehistoric beginnings to its current ... read full excerpt from The Self-Directed Learning Handbook: Challenging Adolescent Students to Excel ebook