Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to connect emerging conceptions of childhood in the capabilities approach (CA) literature to models of self-directed education in hopes of articulating and defending the educational goal of promoting children's participative capabilities. Design/methodology/approach: This paper offers a conceptual and theoretical exploration of childhood from a CA perspective and seeks to connect it to self-directed education. Findings: The author argues that self-directed education, especially democratic schools in the model of the Sudbury Valley School, is well-suited to the task of promoting children's participative capabilities and that people should, therefore, consider this the kind of education to which children have a right. Originality/value: By applying the CA framework to self-directed education, this paper makes an original contribution in two directions: first, it offers a new set of theoretical tools for self-directed education scholars; second, it offers capabilities theorists interested in promoting children's participative capabilities with a new model of education.