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 | John Holt was born on April 14, 1923 in New York City, the oldest of three children, and raised in the New England area of the US. He went to private schools, but he chose not to reveal the names of the schools he attended because he felt that was irrelevant. He said, "... the things I'm supposed to know so much about I never learned in schools." He served on a submarine in the Pacific during World War II and worked for World Federalists after the end of the war. He taught in private schools for many years before writing his first book, How Children Fail, in 1964. This book and How Children Learn, 1967, have sold over a million and a half copies and have been translated into fourteen languages. Holt’s clear writing and empathic understanding of children has made these books favorites of many teachers, parents, and homeschoolers. Holt became a sought-after speaker and supporter of school reform. He was a visiting teacher for the education departments at Harvard University and University of California, Berkeley. However, Holt felt little support from universities for the sorts of school reforms he, and others, were advocating, and he sought other avenues for change. Throughout the next decade, Holt's books explored education theory and practice (What Do I Do Monday?), children's rights (Escape From Childhood), and alternative schools (Freedom and Beyond), as well as many social issues related to schooling (The Underachieving School) in his subsequent books. These quick summaries do little justice to the variety of Holt's books and the flexibility of his thinking. Each one covers far more areas than the labels I've assigned to them can convey. For instance, some reviewers have termed Holt a "social critic" or "public intellectual" rather than just a school reformer. Holt eventually decided that schools could not be reformed and spent his remaining years thinking about, supporting, and writing about places where and people from whom children could learn without conventional schooling. Instead of Education: Ways to Help People Do Things Better (Dutton, 1976, Sentient, 2003) called for an underground railroad to help children escape from compulsory schooling, which Holt felt hindered more than helped children's learning. Some people who read Instead of Education wrote to Holt to tell him you could teach your own children instead of sending them to school. Holt almost immediately worked to support homeschooling. He started the magazine Growing Without Schooling in August, 1977, making it America’s first magazine about homeschooling. In 1979 Never Too Late was published. Subtitled "My Musical Autobiography," it is a wonderful portrait of Holt's experiences as an adult learning to play the cello, with no particular musical background. Holt's only book about homeschooling, Teach Your Own, came out in 1981. It was revised by Holt’s colleague, Patrick Farenga, and published in 2003 by Perseus Books. John Holt died on September 14, 1985. Learning All the Time, left unfinished at the time of Holt's death, was completed using material he wrote for Growing Without Schooling; it was published in 1989. For more information about John Holt: A Life Worth Living: Selected Letters of John Holt, edited by Susannah Sheffer. Published by Ohio State University Press in 1991, this book is currently out of print. It contains a great biography of Holt, as well as the most complete documentation about how and why Holt's thoughts about schooling changed over the course of his life. Look for it in used bookstores and online book search services - your effort will be worth it! John Holt 1923 - 1985 by Pat Farenga | |||
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