John Holt (1923–1985) was an American author and educator widely regarded as the father of the modern homeschooling and unschooling movements. A former school teacher, Holt became disillusioned with traditional schooling after observing how it undermined children's natural curiosity. His early books — How Children Fail (1964) and How Children Learn (1967) — were aimed at school reform. By the mid-1970s, however, Holt had concluded that schools were unreformable, and he began advocating for 'unschooling' — a term he coined in his newsletter Growing Without Schooling, which he founded in 1977. His legacy lives on through Holt Associates and John Holt GWS.
Updated by Patrick Farenga, this essential guide distills John Holt's wisdom on homeschooling and unschooling into a practical companion for families getting started.
A companion to How Children Fail, this seminal book by John Holt observes how young children learn through play, exploration, and curiosity before formal schooling gets in the way. Holt argues that children are naturally brilliant, fearless learners and that our job as adults is to protect that drive, not direct it.
Holt's groundbreaking first book, based on his classroom observations, arguing that schools cause children to fail by making them afraid of the wrong answer.
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