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Children Quote by John Holt

“Schools assume that children are not interested in learning and are not much good at it, that they will not learn unless made to, that they cannot learn unless shown how, and that the way to make them learn is to divide up the prescribed material into a sequence of tiny tasks to be mastered one at a time, each with it's approrpriate 'morsel' and 'shock.' And when this method doesn't work, the schools assume there is something wrong with the children...something they must try to diagnose and treat.”

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Children Education Teaching

More by John Holt

“When children are very young, they have natural curiosities about the world and explore them, trying diligently to figure out what is real. As they become "producers " they fall away from exploration and start fishing for the right answers with little thought. They believe they must always be right, so they quickly forget mistakes and how these mistakes were…

The idea of painless, nonthreatening coercion is an illusion. 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 dont do what you…

The biggest enemy to learning is the talking teacher.

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“Fear, boredom, and resistance--they all go to make what we call stupid children.”

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“Much of what we call History is the success stories of madmen.”

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“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…

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It is hard not to feel that there must be something very wrong with much of what we do in school, if we feel…

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“Why do they do this? Because it gives them a license to act like tyrants and to feel like saints. “Do what I tell you!” roars the tyrant. “It’s for your own good, and one day you’ll be grateful,” says the saint. Few people, feeling themselves powerless in a world turned upside down, can or even wish to resist the…

“We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way.”

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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,…

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“Leaders are not, as we are often led to think, people who go along with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see, whether anyone is following them. "Leadership qualities" are not the qualities that enable people to attract followers, but those that enable them to do without them.…

People should be free to find or make for themselves the kinds of educational experience they want their children to have.

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Explore all 46 John Holt quotes

More Children quotes

I am certain that children always know more than they are able to tell, and that makes the big difference between them and adults,…

Jacques Lusseyran

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Behind every successful child is an adult who believed in him.

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I believe in freedom to do what you want if you aren't hurting others, but pictures of obese protesters giving their children big gulps.

Philip DeFranco

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If the audience likes your work, if they like you, they don't think whether you are married or have children or not. I made…

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It doesnt seem to me strange that children should like the macabre, the sensational, and the forbidden.

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Let children support their parents or be imprisoned.

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Gratitude isn't just a feeling, it's an action. Expressing gratitude by writing in a journal, taking a photo, or shooting a video creates a…

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My embarrassing confession is that my father is a 'Camelot: The Musical' obsessive. So as a child, when we were going to visit relatives…

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I have many who keep me going, I am very fortunate in this sense. There is nothing like a child who knows more about…

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My school was one of the most beautiful places a child can grow up in. You are surrounded by nature - cats, dogs, birds…

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A lesser complaint: hair extensions. There are moments on 'All My Children' when half the women actors, young and old, seem to be afflicted…

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As a child, I had a lot of older gay men taking care of me. There's a trust there. I feel like little girls and old gay men together - there's a safety. They make a shield from all of the bad things they've experienced in the world. They make a home together. There are no songs about that. I…

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