But, if you observe children learning in their first few years of life, you can see that they can and do learn on their own - we leave them alone to crawl, walk, talk, and gain control over their bodies. It happens without much help from parents.

Greenberg’s remark draws on a common Sudbury/unschooling argument: the most foundational human competencies—motor control, speech, and basic social learning—are typically acquired without formal instruction. By pointing to infancy and early childhood, he challenges the assumption that learning requires adult-directed teaching, curricula, or constant intervention. The quote implies that self-initiated exploration, imitation, play, and trial-and-error are powerful learning mechanisms, and that excessive adult management may be unnecessary or even counterproductive. In this view, education should aim less at “delivering” knowledge and more at protecting conditions (time, freedom, safety, rich environments) in which intrinsic motivation can operate.