Resources

Play Mountain Place Support

Join Teacher Maydée Aguilar on the podcast “Speaking Kid” as she discusses how we navigate children’s hurts, upsets and feelings here at Play Mountain Place. Get coached on supporting and empowering children through our process of listening and being curious, while staying neutral. Also join Director Joe Ringlehan on the podcast as he discusses his history and relationship with Play Mountain Place, supporting parents and his experience as a child and as a parent. Both are a must listen!

Literacy at Play Mountain Place An article written by former teacher Unity Imani-ImoJah that can help parents understand how children learn to read at Play Mountain Place.

Listen here to the Hand in Hand Teleseminar entitled “Conflict Resolution: In School and at Home” with Play Mountain Place Director Judy Accardi and Hand in Hand’s Patty Wipfler. During this Teleseminar, Patty introduces Hand in Hand Parenting and welcomes listeners. Patty then introduces Judy, and Judy discusses the way we use respectful ways to help children resolve difficulties with one another at Play Mountain Place, and the important role a parent can play as limit-setter, listener, and guide through the problem-solving process.

It’s Magic – With Parent and Alumni Allegra Hill on Re:Work by the UCLA Labor Center Listen on SoundCloud. Join Parent and Play Mountain Place Alumni Allegra Hill on her journey to become a midwife. From Re:Work, “We often refer to birth as miraculous, and it can also seem mysterious. Many times there is a veiling around birth and labor, and the types of work mothers and birthworkers do to bring new life into this world. In this episode, Allegra Hill shares birth stories from her family and how her personal journey led her into the world of birthwork, including her time as a student at Play Mountain Place. Part of a miniseries on Black midwives in Los Angeles devoted to helping women experience empowered births.”

For a list of book suggestions, see our reading list.

Talks

Sir Ken Robinson Learning Revolution (TED Talk)
Dr. Peter Gray The Decline of Play and Rise of Mental Disorders (TED Talk)
Sugata Mitra The Child-Driven Education (TED Talk)
Yaacov Hecht What is Democratic Education?
Hand in Hand Parenting
Joseph Chilton Pearce Play is Learning

Films

Approaching the Elephant

August to June A wonderful 88 minute documentary film that invites you inside a public school happily and purposefully going against current trends. Amy Valens, who is the teacher followed in this documentary was a teacher at Play Mountain Place in 1969-70. She says, “Even though it follows a public school, with some of the limits that creates, much of who I became as a teacher was informed by my time at Play Mountain and my contact with Phyllis, and I think it shows in the film.”

Being and Becoming

Garden of Children (Trailer)

Bev Bos Starting at Square One

Democratic Education by Jan Gabbert

Free to Learn: A Radical Experiment in Education (2006)

Finding Joe

Learning From The Intangible

Summerhill BBC Documentary/Drama