To a very great degree, school is a place where children learn to be stupid. — John Holt Copy Share Image
“The only thing to do was to turn off the questions and watch - like a child. Take it all in. See… — John Holt Copy Share Image
People should be free to find or make for themselves the kinds of educational experience they want their children to have. — John Holt Copy Share Image
“Fear, boredom, and resistance--they all go to make what we call stupid children.” — John Holt Copy Share Image
“Only to the degree that people have what they need, that they are healthy and unafraid, that their lives are varied, interesting,… — John Holt Copy Share Image
By now I have come to feel that the fact of being a child, of being wholly subservient and dependent, of being… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“A life worth living, and work worth doing - that is what I want for children (and all people), not just, or… — John Holt Copy Share Image
If I had to make a general rule for living and working with children, it might be this: be wary of saying… — John Holt Copy Share Image
What is most important and valuable about the home as a base for children's growth into the world is not that it… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“John, if you ever get a family, there’s one thing you should know. No matter how well you get along with your… — John Holt Copy Share Image
A child whose life is full of the threat and fear of punishment is locked into babyhood. There is no way for… — John Holt Copy Share Image
Schools assume that children are not interested in learning and are not much good at it, that they will not learn unless… — John Holt Copy Share Image
We destroy the love of learning in children, which is so strong when they are small, by encouraging and compelling them to… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“When children are very young, they have natural curiosities about the world and explore them, trying diligently to figure out what is… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“For a very long time, ever since men formed societies in which some people bossed others, children have fulfilled this very important… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“Not long after the book came out I found myself being driven to a meeting by a professor of electrical engineering in… — John Holt Copy Share Image
We can best help children learn, not by deciding what we think they should learn and thinking of ingenious ways to teach… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“This idea that children won't learn without outside rewards and penalties, or in the debased jargon of the behaviorists, "positive and negative… — John Holt Copy Share Image
The idea of painless, nonthreatening coercion is an illusion. Fear is the inseparable companion of coercion, and its inescapable consequence. If you… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“Someone asked the other day, "Why do we go to school?" Pat, with vigor unusual in her, said, "So when we grow… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“The book will be a demonstration that children, without being coerced or manipulated, or being put in exotic, specially prepared environments, or… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“For many years I have been asking myself why intelligent children act unintelligently at school. The simple answer is, "Because they're scared."… — John Holt Copy Share Image
It is hard not to feel that there must be something very wrong with much of what we do in school, if… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“Why do people take or keep their children out of school? Mostly for three reasons: they think that raising their children is… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“Books ... rarely, if ever, talk about what children can make of themselves, about the powers that from the day or moment… — John Holt Copy Share Image
To trust children we must first learn to trust ourselves...and most of us were taught as children that we could not be… — John Holt Copy Share Image
No use to shout at them to pay attention. If the situations, the materials, the problems before the child do not interest… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“There is no reason why a child, living in every other way as a dependent of his parents, could not and should… — John Holt Copy Share Image
Over the years, I have noticed that the child who learns quickly is adventurous. She's ready to run risks. She approaches life… — John Holt Copy Share Image
We who believe that children want to learn about the world, are good at it, and can be trusted to do it… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“When children are very young, they have natural curiosities about the world and explore them, trying diligently to figure out what is real. As… — John Holt Copy Share Image
The idea of painless, nonthreatening coercion is an illusion. Fear is the inseparable companion of coercion, and its inescapable consequence. If you think it… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“Fear, boredom, and resistance--they all go to make what we call stupid children.” — John Holt Copy Share Image
Schools assume that children are not interested in learning and are not much good at it, that they will not learn unless made to,… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“John, if you ever get a family, there’s one thing you should know. No matter how well you get along with your children when… — John Holt Copy Share Image
It is hard not to feel that there must be something very wrong with much of what we do in school, if we feel… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“Why do they do this? Because it gives them a license to act like tyrants and to feel like saints. “Do what I tell… — John Holt Copy Share Image
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,… — John Holt Copy Share Image
“Leaders are not, as we are often led to think, people who go along with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people who go… — John Holt Copy Share Image
