Why children fail

It is amazing and alarming that the diseased seeds Holt saw being planted in the mid-twentieth century have now blossomed and flourished into full-blown rotten, choking vines, an educational Kudzu from which it is almost impossible to extricate actual education. This is sad and frustrating for anyone truly invested in educating anyone. Remove the satire and the dark humor Holt is straightforward, honest, and sincere , and the same can be said of this book, only in terms of education.

So why read something so depressing? Because any honest assessment of how we educate is bound to be depressing, given how broken everyone knows our educational system to be. But as with any dysfunctional social institution, ignoring the depressing truth about it can only serve to perpetuate that dysfunction, since the continued existence of the dysfunction is certain as long as we blindly obey the uniquely human instinct to pretend that the dysfunction does not exist.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in challenging that dysfunction and looking for ways to make the system healthy again. So, after all these years of homeschooling I finally read John Holt. And, believe it or not, I whole-heartedly agree with a lot of what he has to say. He so eloquently puts into words many things I have thought about education and learning.

I don't know if I could've understood so much of this before experiencing it through learning with my own children. One of my many favorite quotes: "But a child who is learning naturally, following his curiosity where it leads him, adding to his mental model So, after all these years of homeschooling I finally read John Holt. One of my many favorite quotes: "But a child who is learning naturally, following his curiosity where it leads him, adding to his mental model of reality whatever he needs and can find a place for, and rejecting without fear or guilt what he does not need, is growing--in knowledge, in the love of learning, and the ability to learn.

He is on his way to becoming the kind of person we need in our society All his life he will go on learning. Every experience will make his mental model of reality more complete and more true to life, and thus make him more able to deal realistically, imaginatively, and constructively with whatever new experience life throws his way.

May 18, JP rated it it was amazing. John Holt summarizes perfectly the problem with contemporary education: it emphasizes right answers rather than learning, production rather than thinking. Read this book to understand this problem and its results, as seen through his experience as a collaborative teacher and thoughtful observer. The rewards for "right answers" over thinking even persists at higher education levels. Everyone John Holt summarizes perfectly the problem with contemporary education: it emphasizes right answers rather than learning, production rather than thinking.

Everyone knows what would happen; that's why they don't do it. Children do not need to be "taught" in order to learn, and they often learn best when not taught, 2. Children are very interested in the adult world, 3. Children learn best when the subject is "embedded in the context of real life," 4. In the summary section, he forcefully points out the negative effects of the current system - low self-esteem, ignorance about how to learn, and a mind trained not to want to do so.

Aug 31, Cassandra rated it really liked it Shelves: education , unschooling , nonfiction , favorites. Definitely a book worth rereading. I can't wait to read some of his other books. A few of my favorite quotes A few good principles to keep in mind: 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.

What this means in the field of numbers and math is simply this: the more we can make it possible for children to see how we use numbers, and to use them as we use them , the better.

Pg The attention of children must be lured, caught, and held, like a shy wild animal that must be coaxed with bait to come close. If the situations, the materials, the problems before a child do not interest him, his attention will slip off to what does interest him, and no amount of exhortation or threats will bring it back.

Pg Since we can't know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned.

Pg Apr 21, Hira rated it really liked it. There is a special place in heaven where angels sing dirges for children herded off to school each day. Lamenting the destruction of their infinitely creative capacities as fear of authority, fear of being made fun of, is inculcated deep within their minds. And which drives them towards the hunt for right answers to please countless adults around them and very far away from truly discovering life and their own selves.

This, in a nutshell, is what John Holt's book is about. Its immensely sad to r There is a special place in heaven where angels sing dirges for children herded off to school each day. Its immensely sad to read as he recounts case after case of little kids floundering in the midst of the slave-like circumstances they are thrust into. Tethered to their desks for hours, in perpetual dread of the adults around them, who only seem to be interested in developing a very narrow form of learning.

Made to learn about things that basically just don't matter to them. Things that they just parrot to get through the tests.

Or to escape adult disapproval. Sad, anger-inducing and such an immense wastage of time. School really is the place where we destroy life, destroy everything joyful and beautiful that exists in it, and our capacities to experience it all. Brilliant book. Wish I could lay my hands on more of John Holt's stuff. Jun 08, Jan Martinek rated it it was amazing. Just some quotes in place of a review.

The book is rich in its specificity. But the unsuccessful kids were not trying, however badly, to do the same things as the successful. They were doing something altogether different. They saw the school and their task in it differently. It was a place of danger, and their task was, as far as they could, to stay out of danger. Their business was not learning, but escaping.

The task for her was not to spell "microscopic," or write a word backwards, or balance a weight The thought in her mind must have been something like this: "These teachers want me to do something. I haven't got the faintest idea what it is, or why in the world they want me to do it. Before long they were thinking more of ways to get a good score than of making the beam balance. We wanted them to figure out how to balance the beam, and introduced the scoring as a matter of motivation.

But they out-smarted us, and figured out ways to get a good score that had nothing to do with whether the beam balanced or not. One thing I have discovered is that there is a peculiar kind of relief, a lessening of tension, when you make a mistake. For when you make one, you no longer have to worry about whether you are going to make one. Fear is the inseparable companion of coercion, and its inescapable consequence.

If you think it your duty to make children do what you want, whether they will or not, then it follows inexorably that you must make them afraid of what will happen to them if they don't do what you want. May 24, Moktoklee added it. Pretty intense. I have decided not to rate this book with gold stars John wouldn't have approved.

It definitely wasn't perfect, there were certain points where the spelling and grammar made it difficult to understand what was going on. Another aspect that I wasn't crazy about was the product placement.

I can tell that John was just trying to be helpful and give pointers to other teaching personnel and share what he was interested in, but it's clear in revision notes that John wished he hadn't Pretty intense. I can tell that John was just trying to be helpful and give pointers to other teaching personnel and share what he was interested in, but it's clear in revision notes that John wished he hadn't included products in the work.

This brings me to another, more minor problem, which is that he takes such a long time to go through the revision notes on the products that I've forgotten about what the main idea of the paragraph or chapter was about.

I definitely don't hate this book though. It's very clear from his narrative sections that he really does care about and respect children in the up most. I agree with most of his ideas as they are brought up. I think that John Holt I could have accomplished great things, were he alive today.

His ideas are well logically and methodically mapped out and respectfully put forward so as not to offend anyone. This book made me realize that there are other people in the world who care about what happens to students. Definitely a neccessary read for anyone thinking about attempting the formal education system.

Sep 25, Joshua Rosen rated it liked it. This book is disorganized and rambling and not particularly well-written, but John Holt was an otherwise pretty cool teacher. So he gets at least 3 stars for his ideas, and the little nuggets of truth hidden in this long-winded diary.

View 1 comment. Sep 21, Alina rated it it was ok Shelves: parenting. I wouldn't say that it was a great book, but it had some ideas that I really liked and impressed me and with which I resonated. The main idea that will stay with me for a long time after having read this book is the following: "Schools should be a place where children learn what they most want to know, instead of what we think they ought to know. The child who wants to know something remembers it and uses it once he has it; the child who learns something to please or appease someone else forgets I wouldn't say that it was a great book, but it had some ideas that I really liked and impressed me and with which I resonated.

The child who wants to know something remembers it and uses it once he has it; the child who learns something to please or appease someone else forgets it when the need for pleasing or the danger of not appeasing is past. This is why children quickly forget all but a small part of what they learn in school.

It is of no use or interest to them; they do not want, or expect, or even intend to remember it. School is a jail of some sort. Is there a room for growth in such environment? I doubt it and so does the author. Dec 31, Bethany rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , education. As a student, I schooled the educational system.

I was the teacher's pet, the A student, the girl with all the answers. Yet, when I finished it all including grad school , I knew hardly anything, and I was frustrated that I could remember so little. Nineteen years and thousands of dollars, and not much to show for it. As a teacher, I started asking questions. Am I actually helping my students learn? Why are kids graduating from college with absolutely no idea about what they're good at or even i As a student, I schooled the educational system.

Why are kids graduating from college with absolutely no idea about what they're good at or even interested in? Why is our entire educational system basically a false measure of intelligence based on arbitrary goals and silly comparisons?

Then I read this book. Holt, with his years of experience teaching kids, makes some brilliant observations and offers some helpful insights that have heightened my awareness of the pathetic state of what we call "education" today. If you're interested in education, this will definitely rile you up in one way or another.

I was literally putting my book down and yelling "Yes, that's right! Note of caution: Holt's passionate about this, and his conclusions sometimes seem a bit exaggerated; in addition, not all of his assertions are provable.

It'll at least provoke your thinking, and that's never a bad thing. Jun 29, James Carter rated it it was ok. How Children Fail says nothing new that experienced teachers don't know before. It's just full of observations and anecdotal stories that may or may not be similar to their experiences. Even worse is how dated the information is. Child psychology has come a very long way since then to explain why children are who they are.

All in all, you are better off seeking out something more recent than How Children Fail which is nearly 60 years old now. Sep 15, Zechy rated it it was amazing. I would recommend a different title: How Children are Failed. Cannot recommend this highly enough. Some of the references are a bit dated, but the main points are just as valid as ever.

It is nothing short of criminal what is done to children "in their own good". Feb 03, Lindsey rated it it was ok Shelves: homeschool-resources. I really thought I would enjoy this book. It has been on my "to read" list for years. It just wasn't for me. I'm not sure who his target audience is, but I had zero interest in reading through decades old notes he took while observing kids who are now adults. Dec 27, Samar rated it really liked it Shelves: childrens , psychology , ice-cream-cake.

John Holt has written this spectacular book and I cannot help but say I can relate to many of the things that he has noticed children do. John Holt perfectly summarizes the problem with education in schools throughout the whole history of schooling.

He himself was a teacher who studied the behaviour of many children within classes he taught. A child, in one example from the book, reads the expressions from what the tea John Holt has written this spectacular book and I cannot help but say I can relate to many of the things that he has noticed children do.

My favourite quotes from the book were: Children do not need to be "taught" in order to learn; they will learn a great deal, and probably learn best, without being taught. Children are enormously interested in our adult world and what we do there. Children learn best when their learning is connected with an immediate and serious purpose.

Jan 15, Zeyna Salama rated it it was amazing. Mar 20, Heather rated it it was amazing Shelves: non-fiction , parenting , As my husband is a teacher by trade, he has read several books on children and education that he recommended I read.

I found it to be profound and fascinating and recommend it to anyone who cares about what their children learn or education. Plus at under pages, it's a quick read. John Holt was a teacher and this book is a collection of memos that he shared with other teachers and his administration. His memos were based on observations in te As my husband is a teacher by trade, he has read several books on children and education that he recommended I read.

His memos were based on observations in teaching his own students and observing other teachers in their classrooms. The work of the children themselves will tell us. Above all, we will have to avoid the difficult temptation of showing slow students the wheel so that they may more quickly get to work on the airplanes Knowledge that is not genuinely discovered by children will very likely prove useless and will soon be forgotten.

But we'll never do it as long as we are obsessed with tests How can we foster a joyous, alert, whole-hearted participation in life, if we build all our schooling around the holiness of getting "right answers? First, he doesn't learn, his confusions are not cleared up; secondly, he comes to believe that a combination of bluffing, guessing, mind reading, snatching at clues and getting answers from other people is what he is supposed to do at school; that this is what school is all about; that nothing else is possible.

Throughout the book he talks a great deal about the use of fear to get children to learn. Fear is not an effective motivator. It may have immediate results, in that children grasp at whatever means possible to find the right answer, but they don't usually understand or retain the process this way. As he described the children he worked with and their various learning failures I thought back to a girl I had worked with during my psych rotation of nursing school. She started out as bright, smart, cheerful, healthy and happy.

After a weekend visit to her father, she was found abandoned and huddled in a little ball. No one knows exactly what happened to her. They suspected some extreme abuse, but she never came out of the secret world that she had run away to.

I observed her more than a dozen years after the incident and she was still rocking and hiding somewhere else, only emerging occasionally to scream. This is obviously an extreme example, but I think that it holds true. Children can become so crippled by fear and stress that they don't learn. Afraid of failure and disapproval they often hide away within themselves, away from the unpleasant stimulus that they can't bear.

Another method that he speaks against is tricks and formulas. I remember as a student being bothered by formulas. They didn't tell me why I was getting the answer I was getting. And when I would I ask why, my teachers would be annoyed and generally tell me in an exasperated manner, that's just the way it is.

As a result I forgot most algebra as soon as I possibly could. No one could ever tell me where these answers were coming from, I was just manipulating numbers. The "right answers" were not relevant to me, so I didn't retain it. This book makes me resolved to be a better teacher of my own children.

I want them to love learning. May 11, Tim rated it really liked it. This book is a highly personal rumination on why so many schoolchildren have trouble absorbing and understanding the material being taught in school. The main focus is on the difference between the passion for learning readily observed in infants and the boredom, frustration, and rebellion against learning that is already manifest in students in the earlier grades. Through a series of memos that read almost like diary entries, Mr.

Holt describes his observations of his own and other teachers' cl This book is a highly personal rumination on why so many schoolchildren have trouble absorbing and understanding the material being taught in school.

Holt describes his observations of his own and other teachers' classrooms. What impressed me most about this book was Mr. Holt's obvious passion for his subject matter. As a concerned teacher, he noticed a problem in his classroom and, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that the problem did not make any sense to him.

Accordingly, he threw all his powers of observation, reason, and empathy into trying to understand it. The result is a fascinating and unique book that seeks to understand, not through studies or "science" but rather through direct firsthand observation, what exactly is going on in the minds of kids. The book makes a lot of good points and raises a lot of interesting questions about the nature of education and learning. To my mind, though, none of its conclusions were unquestionable, and more than once I found myself wondering if Mr.

Holt's deeply felt empathy for the children he was observing caused him to focus too exclusively on the child's point of view. Also, he takes it for granted that the kind of keen desire to learn about the world found in infants would continue unchanged through adulthood if only adults would "get out of the way.

Still, I think everyone should read this book. The questions that an obviously concerned individual has about education deserve to be considered and answered, in one respect or another, in the minds of every citizen of a free country, all of whom have a vested interest in the process and results of the education of the young. Jun 19, Antoniolarsongmail. This wasnt the best book on self guided pedagogy i have read recently. It wasnt the most scintillating read due to its focus on the author's math students and their struggles with basic math.

Still, it was worthwhile to read Holt's process of unraveling each student's approach to the subject until he cou This wasnt the best book on self guided pedagogy i have read recently.

Still, it was worthwhile to read Holt's process of unraveling each student's approach to the subject until he could understand how exactly they were approaching their work.

He was more often than not horrified at what he found. The majority of students were conditioned to not work through understanding how number relationships actually worked, but how to spit out the right answer for the teacher's approval, as soon as possible. We dont get too much in the way of wholesale recommendations for teaching approach until the final chapter of the book. I was somewhat surprised when Holt outlines how he doesnt think any subject matter should be forced on young people.

This bedrock principle of self guided learning wasnt overstated in the body of the book, so i was happily taken aback that he would feature it in his summary.

Still, the book doesnt set out to explain how to educate, but rather, how not to. Good read. Shelves: professional-reading. Original copyright date: Holt's work rings just as true now as it did when I read it in the late 60's.

As I read, I could see his warning about our current testing craze: "One ironical consequence of the drive for so-called higher standards in schools is that children are too busy to think He talks about the difference between thinkers and producers Producers, on the other hand, are driven by the need to produce the right answer Schools aer a kind of temple of worship for 'right answers'" I see this play out with adult learners also His warnings are as fresh now as they were then.

This great mass of evidence, relating growth and behavior to environmental causes, passes unnoticed when we construct the chilling environments of our schools. The second reservoir of evidence—not yet so large as that of psychoanalysis, but directly to the point—is the brief history of libertarian education: the remarkable experiences of Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana, the free school communities of A.

Such experiments seem Utopian if we measure them against the present disposition of vested interests—i. From the point of view of pedagogy itself, the record is impressively one of success. John Holt's recent book, How Children Fail , speaks largely in support of this tradition, though for the most part it is a finely observed record of just the opposite, that is, of the dreadful failure of our conventional procedures.

Just as the familiar dropouts have collapsed into failure and isolation, many honor winners have collapsed into success. Their expertise consists of the passing of tests, and they are separated, as by a veil, from the reality behind the symbols they have learned to manipulate.

At the heart of Holt's book is an estimation of the ordinary powers with which each child begins his life:. These quiet summer days I spend many hours watching this baby. What comes across most vividly is that she is a kind of scientist. She is always observing and experimenting. In the face of what looks like unbroken failure, she is so persistent [that] it is hard to credit the popular notion that without outside rewards and penalties children will not learn.

Her learning gives her great satisfaction, whether anyone else notices it or not. Holt proceeds, then, to analyze the events of the classroom, showing step by step, with persuasively concrete detail, how our present methods defeat and finally eradicate the curiosity, delight, and patience observable in infants. This is a valuable record for parents and is indispensable to teachers. Holt's way of observing might be taken as a pattern by everyone who faces a room full of students.

What does he look for? And what does he look at? The student, of course—faces, gestures, wiggling or the lack of it , eyes, breathing—so that patterns emerge and the teacher is in touch with a whole process, either of failure or of understanding.

These are words which, unlike those heard anywhere else, have only an ulterior meaning: forthcoming tests, grades, comparisons with one's neighbors, threats, bribes.

The result is confusion, boredom, fear, apathy—or a docility which in defeat of the spirit settles for the letter.

It is not hard to see that under these conditions there is a genuine survival value in the strategy of failure. The main body of Holt's book consists of entries from his teaching journal and is divided into four sections. Some behave like the good soldier Schweik, others adapt themselves to the unremitting answer-hunt, having come to see that answers, not understanding, receive the rewards.

These children look for clues in the face, the voice, and the gestures of the teacher. Still others retreat so frequently to the world of daydreams that they themselves lose track of their condition and are under the impression that they are thinking.

Why is so little said about it? Perhaps most people do not recognize fear in children when they see it. Habits, even bad ones, are immediately functional, not remotely functional. They are elements in some present structure of experience and cannot survive of themselves once the total structure has been changed.

He observed an invited educator demonstrating the Cuisenaire rods to a class of severely retarded children. These rods—of various lengths and colors—can be manipulated in such a way as to exemplify the basic facts of arithmetic. There was no question here of testing, no need even to perform.

The usual jollities of breaking the ice were dispensed with. The demonstrator manipulated the rods and invited the students to do the same. For these retarded children the experience of understanding an increment of real power is unthinkably difficult and precious. The tongue going round in the mouth, and the hand clawing away at the leg under the table doubled their pace.

When the time came to turn the rods over and fill the other empty space, he was almost too excited to pick up the rod he wanted but he got it in.