Holt, John (1923–1985)

John Holt was a leading critic of public education in the 1960s and the most prominent advocate for homeschooling in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Born in 1923 and raised in an atmosphere of New England affluence, Holt graduated from Yale in 1943 but found most of his educational experiences worthless despite his stellar academic record. After college Holt served in the Navy, then joined a pacifist group, and finally cycled around Europe. After his return, Holt's sister encouraged him to visit the Colorado Rocky Mountain School, where he taught for 4 years before moving back to the East Coast. He met intellectual comrade Bill Hull while teaching at a selective private school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For the next 7 years Holt and Hull observed one another's classes, taking notes that became the basis for many of Holt's books.

His first book, How Children Fail, was rejected by several publishers before finally being published in 1964. It quickly became a bestseller and remains popular as a classic statement of 1960s-era school critique. Holt's basic contention, richly illustrated with anecdotes from his classrooms, was that compulsory schooling destroys children's native curiosity and replaces it with a self-conscious and fearful desire to please the teacher. Rather than rich subject matter, kids learn skills necessary to pass tests and charm authorities.

Holt's 1967 sequel, How Children Learn, again made use of his extensive notes from classroom observations. He contrasted the natural education children receive in the home with compulsory school education. Holt never appeared bombastic or curmudgeonly, even at his most critical moments, and his simple language made his books accessible. Together How Children Fail and How Children Learn have sold over 1.5 million copies. By the 1970s he was one of the country's most popular education writers.

Holt's critiques were less popular on the job. He was fired from several schools for his refusal to accommodate the administration, attempting to run his classes without assessments, and suggesting pedagogical reforms that scandalized even progressives. He left teaching in 1968 to lecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the University of California at Berkeley, still believing that schools could be transformed into positive resource centers. This optimism changed in 1970 upon a visit with social critic Ivan Illich. Like Holt, Illich decried modernist education, although Illich extended his critique to all technocratic institutions.

In the mid-1960s Holt was a mainstream figure, frequently contributing articles to Life, the Saturday Evening Post, Redbook, even PTA Magazine. But as the 1960s became the 1970s, Holt became an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and refused [Page 448]to pay taxes. He turned down an honorary doctorate from Wesleyan University in 1970, arguing that colleges were “among the chief enslaving institutions” in America. Holt's 1972 Freedom and Beyond showcased his increasing doubts that any schools could challenge the racism, classism, and economic reductionism he associated with modern life. Echoing Illich, Holt argued that children need to be liberated from schools altogether. His 1974 Escape From Childhood argued that children should be granted 11 basic rights, including the right to sue and be sued, to choose their own guardians, and to learn as they wished.

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