John Caldwell Holt
Encyclopedia
John Caldwell Holt was an American author and educator, a proponent of homeschooling
, and a pioneer in youth rights
theory.
region of the USA. He was sent to private schools, whose names he declined to reveal. He said, "... the things I'm supposed to know so much about I never learned in schools." After graduating from university, Holt joined the United States Navy
and served on board the USS Barbero
, a submarine
that fought in the Pacific Ocean. During the war, he concluded that nuclear weapon
s were the world's greatest danger, and only a world government
could prevent nuclear war
. After his three-year tour of duty in the Navy, he got a job with the New York branch of the United World Federalists. Starting in the mail room, he became the executive director of the New York branch within six years. However, he became frustrated with UWF's ineffectiveness and left it in 1952.
At the urging of his sister, Holt became a fifth grade
teacher
. He also spent much time with the babies and young children of his sisters and friends. He was struck by the difference between the 10s (whom he liked) and the 1s and 2s. The children in the classroom, despite their rich backgrounds and high IQs, were, with few exceptions, frightened, timid, evasive, and self-protecting. The infants at home were bold adventurers. After several years of teaching in Colorado
, he moved to Boston
. It was here that he met Bill Hull, a fellow teacher, and they decided to start a classroom observation project; one would teach, while the other would watch. The notes and journal entries Holt accumulated during his first eleven years of teaching formed the core of two of his most popular books How Children Fail
and How Children Learn
, as well as his lesser-known and more radical work, Escape from Childhood: The Rights and Needs of Children
. These three books detailed the foundational ideas of Holt's philosophy of education
. He held that the primary reason children did not learn in school
s was fear: fear of getting the wrong answers, fear of being ridiculed by the teacher and classmates, fear of not being good enough. He maintained that this was made worse by children being forced to study things that they were not necessarily interested in.
In 1964 Holt published his first book, How Children Fail
, asserting that the academic failure of schoolchildren was not despite the efforts of the schools, but actually because of the schools. Not surprisingly, How Children Fail ignited a firestorm of controversy. Holt was catapulted into the American national consciousness to the extent that he made appearances on major TV talk shows, wrote book reviews for Life magazine, and was a guest on the To Tell The Truth TV game show. In his follow-up work, How Children Learn
, published in 1967, Holt tried to elucidate the learning process of children and why he believed school short circuits that process.
Holt became a sought-after speaker and supporter of school reform. He was a visiting teacher for the education departments at Harvard University
and the University of California, Berkeley
.
Up to this time, no book of his suggested any alternative to institutional schooling; he had hoped to initiate a profound rethinking of education to make schools friendlier for children. But as the years passed, he became convinced that the way schools were was what society wanted, and that a serious reexamination was not going to happen in his lifetime.
Holt then ended his teaching career in order to publicize his ideas about education full time. He soon encountered books by other authors questioning the premises and efficacy of compulsory schooling, including Deschooling Society
by Ivan Illich
(1970) and No More Public School by Harold Bennet (1972). (Bennet went so far as to offer advice to parents on how to keep their children out of school illegally.) In 1976, he published Instead of Education: Ways to Help People Do Things Better, whose conclusion called for a "Children's Underground Railroad" to help children escape compulsory schooling. Readers of this book contacted Holt, saying that they were educating their children at home. After corresponding with a number of these families, Holt began a newsletter in 1977, dedicated to home education, Growing Without Schooling
.
Holt's philosophy was simple:
It was no great leap from there to arrive at homeschooling. In 1980, Holt said:
In his 40th year, Holt began to study the cello
, an experience he wrote about in his 1979 book Never Too Late: My Musical Life Story
.
Holt continued to advocate for expansive reform of education until his 1985 death.
. However, it would be pointless to simply remove children from the school environment, if parents simply recreated that environment at home. He believed that "children who were provided with a rich and stimulating learning environment would learn what they are ready to learn, when they are ready to learn it".
Holt believed that children did not need to be coerced into learning; they would do so naturally if given the freedom to follow their own interests and a rich assortment of resources. This line of thought came to be called unschooling
.
Holt's Growing Without Schooling
(GWS), founded in 1977, was the nation's first home education newsletter. He also set up John Holt's Bookstore, which made selected books available by mail order. This brought in additional revenue that helped sustain the newsletter, which carried very little advertising.
Holt's sole book on homeschooling, Teach Your Own, was published in 1981. It quickly became the "Bible" of the early homeschooling movement. It was revised by his colleague Patrick Farenga and republished in 2003 by Perseus Books.
In addition to home schooling, Holt also espoused many of the principles now taken up by the youth rights
movement, including eliminating the voting age, and allowing young people to sign contracts and obtain employment.
, Americans for a Society Free from Age Restrictions
, the National Youth Rights Association
, and The Freechild Project.
Homeschooling
Homeschooling or homeschool is the education of children at home, typically by parents but sometimes by tutors, rather than in other formal settings of public or private school...
, and a pioneer in youth rights
Youth rights
Youth rights refers to a set of philosophies intended to enhance civil rights for young people. They are a response to the oppression of young people, with advocates challenging ephebiphobia, adultism and ageism through youth participation, youth/adult partnerships, and promoting, ultimately,...
theory.
Biography
John Holt was the oldest of three children, and raised in the New EnglandNew England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
region of the USA. He was sent to private schools, whose names he declined to reveal. He said, "... the things I'm supposed to know so much about I never learned in schools." After graduating from university, Holt joined the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
and served on board the USS Barbero
USS Barbero (SS-317)
USS Barbero was a Balao-class submarine of the United States Navy, named for a family of fishes commonly called surgeon fish....
, a submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
that fought in the Pacific Ocean. During the war, he concluded that nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s were the world's greatest danger, and only a world government
World government
World government is the notion of a single common political authority for all of humanity. Its modern conception is rooted in European history, particularly in the philosophy of ancient Greece, in the political formation of the Roman Empire, and in the subsequent struggle between secular authority,...
could prevent nuclear war
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
. After his three-year tour of duty in the Navy, he got a job with the New York branch of the United World Federalists. Starting in the mail room, he became the executive director of the New York branch within six years. However, he became frustrated with UWF's ineffectiveness and left it in 1952.
At the urging of his sister, Holt became a fifth grade
Fifth grade
Fifth grade is a year of education in the United States and many other nations. The fifth grade is the fifth school year after kindergarten. Students are usually 10 – 11 years old, and are preteens...
teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
. He also spent much time with the babies and young children of his sisters and friends. He was struck by the difference between the 10s (whom he liked) and the 1s and 2s. The children in the classroom, despite their rich backgrounds and high IQs, were, with few exceptions, frightened, timid, evasive, and self-protecting. The infants at home were bold adventurers. After several years of teaching in Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, he moved to Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. It was here that he met Bill Hull, a fellow teacher, and they decided to start a classroom observation project; one would teach, while the other would watch. The notes and journal entries Holt accumulated during his first eleven years of teaching formed the core of two of his most popular books How Children Fail
How Children Fail
How Children Fail is a non-fiction book by John Holt, published in 1964 and republished in 1982 in a revised edition. It has sold over a million copies...
and How Children Learn
How Children Learn
How Children Learn is a nonfiction book by educator John Holt, first published in 1967. A revised edition was released in 1983 with new chapters and commentaries....
, as well as his lesser-known and more radical work, Escape from Childhood: The Rights and Needs of Children
Escape From Childhood
Escape from Childhood: The Needs and Rights of Children is a book by John Caldwell Holt. ISBN 978-0345244345For most of John Holt’s career as an author he wrote primarily about schooling...
. These three books detailed the foundational ideas of Holt's philosophy of education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
. He held that the primary reason children did not learn in school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
s was fear: fear of getting the wrong answers, fear of being ridiculed by the teacher and classmates, fear of not being good enough. He maintained that this was made worse by children being forced to study things that they were not necessarily interested in.
In 1964 Holt published his first book, How Children Fail
How Children Fail
How Children Fail is a non-fiction book by John Holt, published in 1964 and republished in 1982 in a revised edition. It has sold over a million copies...
, asserting that the academic failure of schoolchildren was not despite the efforts of the schools, but actually because of the schools. Not surprisingly, How Children Fail ignited a firestorm of controversy. Holt was catapulted into the American national consciousness to the extent that he made appearances on major TV talk shows, wrote book reviews for Life magazine, and was a guest on the To Tell The Truth TV game show. In his follow-up work, How Children Learn
How Children Learn
How Children Learn is a nonfiction book by educator John Holt, first published in 1967. A revised edition was released in 1983 with new chapters and commentaries....
, published in 1967, Holt tried to elucidate the learning process of children and why he believed school short circuits that process.
Holt became a sought-after speaker and supporter of school reform. He was a visiting teacher for the education departments at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
Up to this time, no book of his suggested any alternative to institutional schooling; he had hoped to initiate a profound rethinking of education to make schools friendlier for children. But as the years passed, he became convinced that the way schools were was what society wanted, and that a serious reexamination was not going to happen in his lifetime.
Holt then ended his teaching career in order to publicize his ideas about education full time. He soon encountered books by other authors questioning the premises and efficacy of compulsory schooling, including Deschooling Society
Deschooling Society
Deschooling Society is a critical discourse on education as practised in modern economies. It is a book that brought Ivan Illich to public attention. Full of detail on programs and concerns, the book gives examples of the ineffectual nature of institutionalized education...
by Ivan Illich
Ivan Illich
Ivan Illich was an Austrian philosopher, Roman Catholic priest, and "maverick social critic" of the institutions of contemporary western culture and their effects on the provenance and practice of education, medicine, work, energy use, transportation, and economic development.- Personal life...
(1970) and No More Public School by Harold Bennet (1972). (Bennet went so far as to offer advice to parents on how to keep their children out of school illegally.) In 1976, he published Instead of Education: Ways to Help People Do Things Better, whose conclusion called for a "Children's Underground Railroad" to help children escape compulsory schooling. Readers of this book contacted Holt, saying that they were educating their children at home. After corresponding with a number of these families, Holt began a newsletter in 1977, dedicated to home education, Growing Without Schooling
Growing Without Schooling
Growing Without Schooling was a homeschooling newsletter, focused primarily on unschooling. It was founded in 1977 by educator John Holt, and was published in Boston, Massachusetts. Reportedly the first such publication in the United States, it was read worldwide, and helped to catalyze the early...
.
Holt's philosophy was simple:
"... the human animal is a learning animal; we like to learn; we are good at it; we don't need to be shown how or made to do it. What kills the processes are the people interfering with it or trying to regulate it or control it."
It was no great leap from there to arrive at homeschooling. In 1980, Holt said:
"I want to make it clear that I don’t see homeschooling as some kind of answer to badness of schools. I think that the home is the proper base for the exploration of the world which we call learning or education. Home would be the best base no matter how good the schools were."
In his 40th year, Holt began to study the cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
, an experience he wrote about in his 1979 book Never Too Late: My Musical Life Story
Never Too Late: My Musical Life Story
Never Too Late: My Musical Life Story, was a non-fiction novel written by John Caldwell Holt , an educator and author. The book is written in an autobiographical format, telling about his experience of learning to play the , as an adult...
.
Holt continued to advocate for expansive reform of education until his 1985 death.
From Homeschooling to Unschooling
After many years of working within the school system, Holt became disillusioned with it. He became convinced that reform of the school system was not possible because it was fundamentally flawed, and began to advocate homeschoolingHomeschooling
Homeschooling or homeschool is the education of children at home, typically by parents but sometimes by tutors, rather than in other formal settings of public or private school...
. However, it would be pointless to simply remove children from the school environment, if parents simply recreated that environment at home. He believed that "children who were provided with a rich and stimulating learning environment would learn what they are ready to learn, when they are ready to learn it".
Holt believed that children did not need to be coerced into learning; they would do so naturally if given the freedom to follow their own interests and a rich assortment of resources. This line of thought came to be called unschooling
Unschooling
Unschooling is a range of educational philosophies and practices centered on allowing children to learn through their natural life experiences, including play, game play, household responsibilities, work experience, and social interaction, rather than through a more traditional school curriculum....
.
Holt's Growing Without Schooling
Growing Without Schooling
Growing Without Schooling was a homeschooling newsletter, focused primarily on unschooling. It was founded in 1977 by educator John Holt, and was published in Boston, Massachusetts. Reportedly the first such publication in the United States, it was read worldwide, and helped to catalyze the early...
(GWS), founded in 1977, was the nation's first home education newsletter. He also set up John Holt's Bookstore, which made selected books available by mail order. This brought in additional revenue that helped sustain the newsletter, which carried very little advertising.
Holt's sole book on homeschooling, Teach Your Own, was published in 1981. It quickly became the "Bible" of the early homeschooling movement. It was revised by his colleague Patrick Farenga and republished in 2003 by Perseus Books.
In addition to home schooling, Holt also espoused many of the principles now taken up by the youth rights
Youth rights
Youth rights refers to a set of philosophies intended to enhance civil rights for young people. They are a response to the oppression of young people, with advocates challenging ephebiphobia, adultism and ageism through youth participation, youth/adult partnerships, and promoting, ultimately,...
movement, including eliminating the voting age, and allowing young people to sign contracts and obtain employment.
Effects on education
Holt wrote 10 books that have greatly influenced the unschooling movements. His writings have influenced many individuals and organizations, including The Evergreen State College, Caleb GattegnoCaleb Gattegno
Caleb Gattegno Alexandria, Egypt is best known for his innovative approaches to teaching and learning mathematics , foreign languages and reading...
, Americans for a Society Free from Age Restrictions
Americans for a Society Free from Age Restrictions
Americans for a Society Free from Age Restrictions, also known as ASFAR Youth Liberation, is an organization dedicated to increasing the rights of youth under American law...
, the National Youth Rights Association
National Youth Rights Association
The National Youth Rights Association is the largest youth-led civil rights organization in the United States promoting youth rights, with approximately ten thousand members...
, and The Freechild Project.
Quotes
See also
- Deep Intelligence: Giving Our Young the Education they Really Need by Andrew Seaton, PhD
- John Taylor GattoJohn Taylor GattoJohn Taylor Gatto is a retired American school teacher with nearly 30 years experience in the classroom, and author of several books on education...
- History of Youth Rights in the United StatesHistory of youth rights in the United StatesFirst emerging as a distinct movement in the 1930s, the history of youth rights in the United States has long been concerned with civil rights and intergenerational equity. Tracing its roots to youth activists during the Great Depression, youth rights has influenced the civil rights movement,...