John Holt Research Paper
John Caldwell Holt was born April 14, 1923. After finishing his studies, he served in the 2nd World War as part of the submarine service in the U.S.Navy. His experience in the war and what nuclear weapons did convinced him that nuclear weapons were the world’s greatest danger, and he saw world government as the only means to prevent such a catastrophe. This moved him to join the United World Federalists (UWF), which he believed could help accomplish world governance. I agree with a blogger that this hints at Holt’s idealism and leanings towards the political left in the U.S. (Zale, Cooper; 2012). After leaving his work, and what seems to be a year of soul-searching where he traveled Europe in 1952-1953, he was convinced by one of his sisters
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to teach. Thus began his journey into teaching and the field of education. After over 11 years of teaching, he published his first book How Children Fail, a book that was based upon his many observations and insights in his first four years of teachings, and some of his insights after. His first few books were written with the aim of raising awareness to the negative effects of mainstream schooling during the timer and with the hopes of generating educational reform. However, as can be seen in his later books, he shifted from his stance of reform to a totally different approach to education altogether. It became clearer to him that no amount of reform was going to happen in his lifetime, and started encouraging parents to take their children out of mainstream schooling and become responsible for their children’s learning instead in what today is known as unschooling. It is interesting to note that according to Garrett, Holt never had any professional training as a teacher. This may have allowed him to trust more in his insights and intuition to formulate his own ideas than on his training. Garrett also mentions about the various skills and subjects Holt had taught himself and learned outside the classroom. He learned French and Italian at 30, skiing at 31, the cello at 40, water-skiing at 47, horseback riding at 48, and the violin at 60. I feel this reflects Holt’s bravery and dedication to his ideas; he applied his ideas to his own life. Holt died of cancer on September 14, 1985.
Although I was only able to read Holt’s book How Children Fail, I was able to have an idea on his view of the student and the teacher, the negative effects traditional schooling was, and still is, having on children. He talks about the Producer, the type of child that is only concerned about finding the answer, and the thinker, who is more concerned with the reality and meaning of what s/he is working on. Holt saw that traditional schools promoted the development of the Producer more. He also mentions the various strategies students, particularly the Producers, use to find the answer. One was what he called the one way, don’t-look-back-it’s-too-awful strategy, where the child quickly blurts out or gives the answer without checking to see if it was correct or even logical. Next was the mumble strategy, where the student mumbles when he/she is not sure of the answer in the hopes that if it was wrong, it would at least sound close to the correct answer, or in the hopes that the teacher would not hear the incorrect answer and assume the student answered correctly. Another he mentions is the guess-and-look strategy, where the student makes a guess, all the while looking at the teacher’s reaction. If the teacher starts to give out the usual non-verbal cues that the students become accustomed to connect to the wrong answer, they will immediately change their answer. Another point he touches on that he feels triggers the use of these strategies that is possibly behind the need to get the correct answer: fear. He mentions fear of failure and fear of the judgment that might be passed both by the teacher and other students. While trying to find a deeper understanding behind the don’t-look-back-it’s-too-awful strategy, he comes to the realization of the danger in connecting self-concept with success and failure. One becomes so afraid of failure that one is unable to look at one’s mistakes. When one is always afraid of failure, one is under the constant strain of trying to avoid it. Being under constant anxiety in school can thereby interfere with learning, as he has experienced himself in a phenomenon he mentions called word blindness (not to be confused with what dyslexics experience). He explains this by referring to an experience of his when trying to read notes for the flute and being under a lot of pressure coming from his teacher. He reached a point where he was just unable to make any sense of the notes, and he had to take a step back and relax before he could continue. He also noted some principles in making math more accessible and interesting to students, which I think are very close to the principles of unschooling today:
(1) Children do not need to be “taught” in order to learn; they will learn a great deal, and probably learn best, without being taught. (2) Children are enormously interested in our adult world and what we do there; (3) Children learn best when the things they learn are embedded in a context of real life (“The continuum of experience). (4) Children learn best when learning is connected (Holt, John, 1995, p. 221)
I searched the internet for a more complete list of principles based on John Holt’s writings and beliefs but supplemented by other unschoolers, particularly Pam Sorooshian:
Learning happens all the time.
The brain never stops working and it is not possible to divide time up into "learning periods" versus "non-learning periods." Everything that goes on around a person, everything they hear, see, touch, smell, and taste, results in learning of some kind.
Learning does not require coercion. In fact, learning cannot really be forced against someone 's will. Coercion feels bad and creates resistance.
Learning feels good. It is satisfying and intrinsically rewarding. Irrelevant rewards can have unintended side effects that do not support learning.
Learning stops when a person is confused. All learning must build on what is already known.
Learning becomes difficult when a person is convinced that learning is difficult. Unfortunately, most teaching methods assume learning is difficult and that lesson is the one that is really "taught" to the students.
Learning must be meaningful. When a person doesn 't see the point, when they don 't know how the information relates or is useful in "the real world," then the learning is superficial and temporary - not "real"
learning.
Learning is often incidental. This means that we learn while engaged in activities that we enjoy for their own sakes and the learning happens as a sort of "side benefit."
Learning is often a social activity, not something that happens in isolation from others. We learn from other people who have the skills and knowledge we 're interested in and who let us learn from them in a variety of ways.
We don 't have to be tested to find out what we 've learned. The learning will be demonstrated as we use new skills and talk knowledgeably about a topic,
Feelings and intellect are not in opposition and not even separate things. All learning involves the emotions, as well as the intellect.
Learning requires a sense of safety. Fear blocks learning. Shame and embarrassment, stress and anxiety—these block learning.
As can be seen from the principles above, unschooling and those who practice it tries to bring about learning as naturally as possible. There is no curriculum, and nothing is forced on the learner. The learner is allowed a lot of freedom to choose what, when, and how he/she would want to learn something. This can make unschooling quite eclectic, as there are no limits to how a child may want to learn. There is also great value put in “real learning”, when someone is able to connect something they are learning with real life.
The role of the teacher and parent is very simple: to provide a safe environment for learning and to be interacted with on equal footing. This is what is said about the teacher in an FAQ page about homeschooling originally by John Holt, but with later additions by Pat Farenga on a webpage that is a reprint of chapter 3 of Teach Your Own:
“They (the child/learner) need a chance, sometimes, for honest, serious, unhurried talk; or sometimes, for joking, play, and foolishness; or sometimes, for tenderness, sympathy, and comfort. They need, much of the time, to share your life, or at least, not to feel shut out of it; in short, to go some of the places you go, to see and do some of the things that interest you, to get to know some of your friends, to find out what you did when you were little and before they were born. They need to have their questions answered, or at least heard and attended to (if you don 't know, say "I don 't know.") They need to know more and more adults whose main work in life is not taking care of kids.
I also found an article by Carlo Rici on what he considers the four cornerstones of unschooling, which may help in further understanding the principles of unschooling: love, trust, respect, care and compassion. He put both care and compassion under one pillar to make them four. He explained love as a pillar by saying that learning can happen if learners love learning, are in a loving environment, and are able to love the world and everything in it. He says, “We need to remove obstacles, not create them. We need to understand that every human is a gift, and has gifts to offer and we need to allow them to explore their gifts and not try to fit them into a standard mold (Rici, 2011).” Next, he explained that trust is important as a pillar because we must learn to trust that young people can decided what they want to learn without being forced. Also, they are the only ones who know their desires and interests. Last but not least, the learner must also learn to trust him/herself, which he/she might have a difficult time doing without the trust of others. The next pillar is respect. Rici says that we need to respect each other’s right to determine what, hoe, when, and whether to learn something. Respect needs to be mutual, meaning not just coming from the student to the teacher, but from the teacher to the student as well. Lastly is care and compassion. Although he did not exactly state clearly how it is important in unschooling, he states the importance of care and compassion in making responsible and caring citizens. I feel that it is important for a learner to feel moments of kindness and have a guide when situations may be reversed with the learner in the future, where the learner becomes the teacher and guide and is guiding another learner. These four pillars allow the foundations of what Rici called the Willed Curriculum, which is basically the internal drive to learn and do something. This, I feel, points directly to one of the main goals of unschooling, which is to create curious and inquisitive people who are greatly involved with the world and everything in it who love living and learning.
“…making pots just to learn how it is done still doesn’t seem to me anywhere near as good as making pots (and learning from it) because someone needs pots. The incentive to learn how to do good work, and to do it, is surely much greater when you know that the work has to be done, that it is going to be of real use to someone. (Holt, 1999)”
REFERENCES:
Holt, John. How children fail. Rev. ed, 1995. New York: Delta/Seymour Lawrence, c1982
Ricci, C. (2011). Unschooling and the willed curriculum. Encounter,
24(3), 45-48
http://www.johnholtgws.com/who-was-john-holt/
http://www.johnholtgws.com/books-by-john-holt/
http://www.johnholtgws.com/frequently-asked-questions-abo/
http://www.holtgws.com/whatisunschoolin.html
Garrett, Sharon. http://www2.southeastern.edu/Academics/Faculty/nadams/educ692/Holt.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Holt_(educator)
Zale, Cooper. http://www.leftyparent.com/blog/2012/04/14/happy-birthday-john-holt-patron-saint-of-unschooling/
to teach. Thus began his journey into teaching and the field of education. After over 11 years of teaching, he published his first book How Children Fail, a book that was based upon his many observations and insights in his first four years of teachings, and some of his insights after. His first few books were written with the aim of raising awareness to the negative effects of mainstream schooling during the timer and with the hopes of generating educational reform. However, as can be seen in his later books, he shifted from his stance of reform to a totally different approach to education altogether. It became clearer to him that no amount of reform was going to happen in his lifetime, and started encouraging parents to take their children out of mainstream schooling and become responsible for their children’s learning instead in what today is known as unschooling. It is interesting to note that according to Garrett, Holt never had any professional training as a teacher. This may have allowed him to trust more in his insights and intuition to formulate his own ideas than on his training. Garrett also mentions about the various skills and subjects Holt had taught himself and learned outside the classroom. He learned French and Italian at 30, skiing at 31, the cello at 40, water-skiing at 47, horseback riding at 48, and the violin at 60. I feel this reflects Holt’s bravery and dedication to his ideas; he applied his ideas to his own life. Holt died of cancer on September 14, 1985.
Although I was only able to read Holt’s book How Children Fail, I was able to have an idea on his view of the student and the teacher, the negative effects traditional schooling was, and still is, having on children. He talks about the Producer, the type of child that is only concerned about finding the answer, and the thinker, who is more concerned with the reality and meaning of what s/he is working on. Holt saw that traditional schools promoted the development of the Producer more. He also mentions the various strategies students, particularly the Producers, use to find the answer. One was what he called the one way, don’t-look-back-it’s-too-awful strategy, where the child quickly blurts out or gives the answer without checking to see if it was correct or even logical. Next was the mumble strategy, where the student mumbles when he/she is not sure of the answer in the hopes that if it was wrong, it would at least sound close to the correct answer, or in the hopes that the teacher would not hear the incorrect answer and assume the student answered correctly. Another he mentions is the guess-and-look strategy, where the student makes a guess, all the while looking at the teacher’s reaction. If the teacher starts to give out the usual non-verbal cues that the students become accustomed to connect to the wrong answer, they will immediately change their answer. Another point he touches on that he feels triggers the use of these strategies that is possibly behind the need to get the correct answer: fear. He mentions fear of failure and fear of the judgment that might be passed both by the teacher and other students. While trying to find a deeper understanding behind the don’t-look-back-it’s-too-awful strategy, he comes to the realization of the danger in connecting self-concept with success and failure. One becomes so afraid of failure that one is unable to look at one’s mistakes. When one is always afraid of failure, one is under the constant strain of trying to avoid it. Being under constant anxiety in school can thereby interfere with learning, as he has experienced himself in a phenomenon he mentions called word blindness (not to be confused with what dyslexics experience). He explains this by referring to an experience of his when trying to read notes for the flute and being under a lot of pressure coming from his teacher. He reached a point where he was just unable to make any sense of the notes, and he had to take a step back and relax before he could continue. He also noted some principles in making math more accessible and interesting to students, which I think are very close to the principles of unschooling today:
(1) Children do not need to be “taught” in order to learn; they will learn a great deal, and probably learn best, without being taught. (2) Children are enormously interested in our adult world and what we do there; (3) Children learn best when the things they learn are embedded in a context of real life (“The continuum of experience). (4) Children learn best when learning is connected (Holt, John, 1995, p. 221)
I searched the internet for a more complete list of principles based on John Holt’s writings and beliefs but supplemented by other unschoolers, particularly Pam Sorooshian:
Learning happens all the time.
The brain never stops working and it is not possible to divide time up into "learning periods" versus "non-learning periods." Everything that goes on around a person, everything they hear, see, touch, smell, and taste, results in learning of some kind.
Learning does not require coercion. In fact, learning cannot really be forced against someone 's will. Coercion feels bad and creates resistance.
Learning feels good. It is satisfying and intrinsically rewarding. Irrelevant rewards can have unintended side effects that do not support learning.
Learning stops when a person is confused. All learning must build on what is already known.
Learning becomes difficult when a person is convinced that learning is difficult. Unfortunately, most teaching methods assume learning is difficult and that lesson is the one that is really "taught" to the students.
Learning must be meaningful. When a person doesn 't see the point, when they don 't know how the information relates or is useful in "the real world," then the learning is superficial and temporary - not "real"
learning.
Learning is often incidental. This means that we learn while engaged in activities that we enjoy for their own sakes and the learning happens as a sort of "side benefit."
Learning is often a social activity, not something that happens in isolation from others. We learn from other people who have the skills and knowledge we 're interested in and who let us learn from them in a variety of ways.
We don 't have to be tested to find out what we 've learned. The learning will be demonstrated as we use new skills and talk knowledgeably about a topic,
Feelings and intellect are not in opposition and not even separate things. All learning involves the emotions, as well as the intellect.
Learning requires a sense of safety. Fear blocks learning. Shame and embarrassment, stress and anxiety—these block learning.
As can be seen from the principles above, unschooling and those who practice it tries to bring about learning as naturally as possible. There is no curriculum, and nothing is forced on the learner. The learner is allowed a lot of freedom to choose what, when, and how he/she would want to learn something. This can make unschooling quite eclectic, as there are no limits to how a child may want to learn. There is also great value put in “real learning”, when someone is able to connect something they are learning with real life.
The role of the teacher and parent is very simple: to provide a safe environment for learning and to be interacted with on equal footing. This is what is said about the teacher in an FAQ page about homeschooling originally by John Holt, but with later additions by Pat Farenga on a webpage that is a reprint of chapter 3 of Teach Your Own:
“They (the child/learner) need a chance, sometimes, for honest, serious, unhurried talk; or sometimes, for joking, play, and foolishness; or sometimes, for tenderness, sympathy, and comfort. They need, much of the time, to share your life, or at least, not to feel shut out of it; in short, to go some of the places you go, to see and do some of the things that interest you, to get to know some of your friends, to find out what you did when you were little and before they were born. They need to have their questions answered, or at least heard and attended to (if you don 't know, say "I don 't know.") They need to know more and more adults whose main work in life is not taking care of kids.
I also found an article by Carlo Rici on what he considers the four cornerstones of unschooling, which may help in further understanding the principles of unschooling: love, trust, respect, care and compassion. He put both care and compassion under one pillar to make them four. He explained love as a pillar by saying that learning can happen if learners love learning, are in a loving environment, and are able to love the world and everything in it. He says, “We need to remove obstacles, not create them. We need to understand that every human is a gift, and has gifts to offer and we need to allow them to explore their gifts and not try to fit them into a standard mold (Rici, 2011).” Next, he explained that trust is important as a pillar because we must learn to trust that young people can decided what they want to learn without being forced. Also, they are the only ones who know their desires and interests. Last but not least, the learner must also learn to trust him/herself, which he/she might have a difficult time doing without the trust of others. The next pillar is respect. Rici says that we need to respect each other’s right to determine what, hoe, when, and whether to learn something. Respect needs to be mutual, meaning not just coming from the student to the teacher, but from the teacher to the student as well. Lastly is care and compassion. Although he did not exactly state clearly how it is important in unschooling, he states the importance of care and compassion in making responsible and caring citizens. I feel that it is important for a learner to feel moments of kindness and have a guide when situations may be reversed with the learner in the future, where the learner becomes the teacher and guide and is guiding another learner. These four pillars allow the foundations of what Rici called the Willed Curriculum, which is basically the internal drive to learn and do something. This, I feel, points directly to one of the main goals of unschooling, which is to create curious and inquisitive people who are greatly involved with the world and everything in it who love living and learning.
“…making pots just to learn how it is done still doesn’t seem to me anywhere near as good as making pots (and learning from it) because someone needs pots. The incentive to learn how to do good work, and to do it, is surely much greater when you know that the work has to be done, that it is going to be of real use to someone. (Holt, 1999)”
REFERENCES:
Holt, John. How children fail. Rev. ed, 1995. New York: Delta/Seymour Lawrence, c1982
Ricci, C. (2011). Unschooling and the willed curriculum. Encounter,
24(3), 45-48
http://www.johnholtgws.com/who-was-john-holt/
http://www.johnholtgws.com/books-by-john-holt/
http://www.johnholtgws.com/frequently-asked-questions-abo/
http://www.holtgws.com/whatisunschoolin.html
Garrett, Sharon. http://www2.southeastern.edu/Academics/Faculty/nadams/educ692/Holt.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Holt_(educator)
Zale, Cooper. http://www.leftyparent.com/blog/2012/04/14/happy-birthday-john-holt-patron-saint-of-unschooling/