How Children Learn

Profound book. Recommended by Austin Kleon. The point that stuck with me most is that people/children learn from tapping into a deep-rooted urge to find meaning. If along the way they need to understand certain things to get more meaning, that learning will be deep and true. [return][return]Trust kids to learn. Our school system in general teaches by force because we don't trust kids to do it themselves.

Riveting from the first page to the last, the style is engaging and illuminating. The anecdotes also corroborate my experience and just "feel" right. Sadly, it doesn’t seem as if the establishment has paid any attention to his observations: I know of no government school systems that devote any attention at all to the students other than telling them what & how we want them to absorb and ignoring their innate capacities for learning.

I remember my mother reading this when I was a child. She referenced it often... and now I do the same. Thirty years after it was first published, this seminal work is still worth reading and then reading again. John Holt is the grand-daddy of pop-psych educational writing. Don't let the pop-psych term put you off, however. This thought provoking work will give you more understanding into your child(ren) than ten years worth of subscriptions to the modern parenting magazines.

An eye-opening book on how children learn in their environments and how they learn better and faster outside of schools. A must read for any homeschool family.

mostly read revisions, reading Holt makes me feel guilty and angry about my own children's education

John Holt was a genius at times. I really like this book and it is one that is worthy of re-reading.

Currently reading. Similar format to How Children Fail, Mr. Holt through memos to Mr. Hull describes how children learn. His strongest advice is to TRUST CHILDREN.