John Holt (educator) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John Holt
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Holt in 1980
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John Caldwell Holt
April 14, 1923 New York City, New York, U.S.
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| Died | September 14, 1985 (aged 62) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
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| Nationality | American |
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John Caldwell Holt (born April 14, 1923 – died September 14, 1985) was an American writer and teacher. He was a big supporter of homeschooling, especially a method called unschooling. He also helped start the idea of youth rights, which means giving young people more freedom and choices.
After teaching elementary school for six years in the 1950s, Holt wrote a book called How Children Fail (1964). This book talked about the problems he saw in American schools. He then wrote How Children Learn (1967). Both books became very popular. This led Holt to become a helper and advisor for schools across America.
By the 1970s, he decided that changing the school system from the inside was too hard. So, he started to support homeschooling. Later, he focused on unschooling, which is a type of homeschooling. He wrote 11 books about education and started a newsletter called Growing Without Schooling (GWS).
Contents
John Holt's Early Life
John Holt was born in New York City on April 14, 1923. He had two younger sisters. He went to Phillips Exeter Academy, a special school, and then to Yale University. He finished college in 1943.
Right after college, he joined the United States Navy. He served in World War II on a submarine called the USS Barbero. He left the Navy in 1946. Then, he joined a group called the United World Federalists. This group wanted to create a single world government to help keep peace. He became a leader in the group's New York State branch. He left in 1952 because he felt the group wasn't making enough progress.
Holt's Teaching Experiences
Holt's sister encouraged him to become an elementary school teacher. In 1953, he started teaching at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School. This was a new private school in Carbondale, Colorado. In 1957 and 1958, he taught at the Shady Hill School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1959, he taught fifth grade at the Lesley Ellis School, also in Cambridge.
While teaching, Holt noticed something important. Even though his students were often smart and from rich families, they seemed shy and unsure. He compared them to the babies and toddlers of his sisters and friends. Those younger children seemed much more curious and confident.
From Homeschooling to Unschooling
After several years, Holt became unhappy with the school system. He realized that it was very difficult to change schools from the inside. So, he started to support homeschooling. He believed that children would learn best if they were in a rich and exciting environment. They would learn what they were ready for, when they were ready.
Holt thought that children don't need to be forced to learn. He felt they would learn naturally if they were free to follow their own interests. They just needed lots of different resources. This idea became known as unschooling.
In 1977, Holt started Growing Without Schooling. This was the first newsletter in America about home education. He also opened John Holt's Bookstore. This store sold special books by mail. The money from the bookstore helped keep the newsletter going, as it had very little advertising.
Holt's only book specifically about homeschooling was Teach Your Own. It was published in 1981. This book quickly became very important for the early homeschooling movement. His friend, Patrick Farenga, later updated the book.
John Holt's Ideas on Education
Holt wrote many books that greatly influenced the unschooling movement. His ideas have inspired many people and groups. These include the Evergreen State College and the National Youth Rights Association.
Holt did not have a special teaching degree. Some people think this helped him see the American school system more clearly. They believe he could notice things that other teachers might miss. He saw a difference between what schools said they were doing and what they actually did.
For many years, he believed that schools were not doing their job well. He thought they used the wrong teaching methods. He felt these failures made young students less eager to learn. Instead, students became more worried about making mistakes or being embarrassed.
In his first book, How Children Fail (1964), Holt wrote about this. He said students might think, "if they know that you can't do anything, then they won't blame you or punish you." This idea made him change his own classroom. He wanted to create a place where students felt more comfortable and confident.
With help from his friend Bill Hull, Holt started to focus less on grades and tests. He also tried to stop ranking children against each other. He wanted his students to truly understand ideas, not just get the right answer. He used a student-centered approach, meaning he focused on each student's needs.
Patrick Farenga explained Holt's view of good and bad students. A "good student" was someone who was careful not to forget what they learned until after the test. Eventually, Holt's new teaching methods led to him losing his job. He said it was because the school wanted to stick to "old 'new' ideas not new 'new' ideas."
After leaving Colorado, Holt looked for other teaching jobs. It took him some time to fully understand his own thoughts on education. But he eventually felt that schools were "a place where children learn to be stupid." Once he reached this conclusion, he focused on helping teachers and parents. He wanted to show them how to teach children to learn on their own. This led to his second book, How Children Learn, in 1967.
Even with his success, his ideas were often rejected by other teachers and schools. This pushed him even more towards the idea of "deschooling." This meant removing children from traditional schools entirely.
After more years of teaching and some guest teaching at universities, Holt wrote two more books. These were The Underachieving School (1969) and What Do I Do Monday? (1970). Both books talked about his belief that schools weren't working. They also offered ideas on how schools could be better. By this time, Holt believed that the changes he wanted to see in schools would probably not happen. These changes included better relationships between children, teachers, and the school community.
At this time, the "free school movement" was popular. His next book, Freedom and Beyond (1972), questioned what teachers really meant when they talked about giving children more freedom in the classroom. Holt believed children should have more rights. But he felt the free school movement was not the full answer to fixing schools.
Holt then wrote Escape from Childhood: The Needs and Rights of Children (1974). In this book, he said children should have more independence. This included the right to work for money, be treated fairly, vote, and even choose new parents. At the time, his ideas about children having so many rights were not popular. But since then, courts have seen more cases where children try to use some of Holt's suggestions, like choosing their legal guardian.
Many of Holt's earlier books talked about the problems with traditional schools. But his seventh book, Instead of Education: Ways to Help People do Better (1976), encouraged parents to find legal ways to take their children out of required schools. He even talked about an "Underground Railroad" for schoolchildren to escape failing schools.
This book caused many parents to contact him about their own homeschooling. This led him to start a newsletter for homeschooling parents. In 1977, Growing Without Schooling was created. It is thought to be the first regular publication about homeschooling in the United States.
Holt then started to focus less on criticizing schools and more on speaking. He taught adults how they could teach their children while also learning themselves. His next book, Never Too Late: My Musical Autobiography (1978), showed adults that they were never too old to learn new things. This idea helped parents who had no teaching experience learn to teach their children at home.
In 1981, the first edition of Holt's most famous book on unschooling was published. It was called Teach Your Own: The John Holt Manual on Homeschooling. The book's introduction says it's about "ways we can teach children, or rather, allow them to learn, outside of schools—at home, or in whatever other places and situations (and the more the better) we can make available to them." It also explains why to do it, shares stories of people doing it, and gives advice. This book has been updated by Patrick Farenga and is still used today.
Even after Holt passed away in 1985, his ideas about homeschooling lived on through his work. His last book, Learning All the Time: How Small Children Begin to Read, Write, Count and Investigate the World, Without Being Taught, was published after his death in 1989. It included many of his writings from Growing Without Schooling. The GWS newsletter has gained followers in many countries. It continues to be published to promote homeschooling and encourage school reform.
See Also
- Deschooling
- John Taylor Gatto
- Jonathan Kozol
- Grace Llewellyn
- History of youth rights in the United States
- Unschooling
