His particular interest in how children learn eventually led him to undertake research into home education. There he discovered the richness and complexity of informal learning and the importance of child autonomy which he then studied in more depth with Harriet Pattison. For anyone who is new to the idea it is necessary to cast aside all preconceptions about education. It means abandoning most of the apparatus of formal education: set curricula, planning lessons and monitoring age related progress. Understandably, this is extremely difficult for the vast majority who assume that the principles and practices underlying education in school are essential to learning. It demands a paradigmatic shift in thinking about the learning and also about the nature of social development.